*Barrister,
of Elm House, Lavender
Hill, Battersea and later of 98 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Educated at King's College School,
London and Christ Church College, Oxford. A student at
Lincoln's Inn in 1844, he was called to the Bar in 1847;
secretary of commissions (to Lord Chancellors) 1852-60;
assistant boundary commissioner 1867; revising barrister
Westminster, Kensington and Hackney 1868-69. He was an
equity draftsman and conveyancer who had chambers at
various locations within Lincoln's Inn, such as 2 New
Square in 1848 and 10 New Square in 1850. By 1855 he had
moved outside the Inn and was at 12 Southampton Row. By
1860 no chambers were listed so he seems to have
ceased practicing until about 1877 when he
reappears listed at 8 Quality Court, Chancery Lane,
until 1880.

*Armsgranted
on 26th March 1767 to his great-great-uncle, Ascanius
William Senior (1728-89), of Tewin Place, Herts, of
Pierrepont Lodge, Frensham, Surrey (1771-77), formerly home of
the notorious Elizabeth Pierrepont, Duchess of Kingston
(1720-1788)*, Pylewell House, Lymington, Hants (1780-87) and
later of Canon Hill House, Bray, Berks (1787-89), brother of Nassau
Thomas Senior (see below). Ascanius served in the HEICS 1753-66, in
the Militia at the siege of Fort William, Calcutta 1756,
which led to the 'Black Hole of Calcutta', and was Chief
of Cossimbazar, principal port of West Bengal, 1765-66
and High Sheriff of Hampshire 1777-78. He m, firstly in
1762, Helen (bapt. 24 Jun 1733, d. 1765 in India),
daughter of John Jekyll of St. Andrew's, Holborn, of the
same family as Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), the noted
gardener, by whom he had one daughter, Helen (b 18 Oct
1763 d 3 Mar 1837), who m John Anstey (d 25 Nov 1819),
barrister, and had issue, and, secondly 5 May 1768,
Charlotte** (1736-1811), daughter of (John) Abel Walter
(d 1767) and Jane Nevill (d. 1786), who was de jure 4th Baroness
Bergavenny of the 6th creation from the death of her
sister Anne in 1736/7 (premier Barony in the Peerage of
England, following the precedence given to her father),
as daughter and eventual heir general of George Nevill (d
1720/1), 1st Lord Bergavenny of the 6th creation*** (see
Burke's Peerage under 'ABERGAVENNY, Marquis of'), by whom
he (Ascanius) left two daughters, Nevillia (b 25 Jan 1769
d 17 Dec 1842), who m 4 Jan 1792 William Thomas (b 1760 d
20 Jan 1848) of Brockhill and had issue, and Charlotte
Maria (b 1773), who m 19 Aug 1790 Francis Fuller of
Salisbury, Wilts, and had issue. Ascanius and
Charlotte had no surviving male issue so the arms of
Senior passed to the senior (i.e. my mother's branch)
branch of the family in accordance with the terms of the
original grant.

**Charlotte
Walter was sole heir of her brother John Walter,
according to 'Genealogies of Barbados Families' (p. 580),
which also quotes his will. This page refers to John
Walter as being 'of Farley Hill, Berks, 1767'. A John Walter founded The Times
in 1785 and his family owned the paper until 1908. One
source that I have seen says that this family (of The
Times) lived at Farley Hill before moving to Bearwood,
Sindlesham, Berks. There appears to be some confusion
here as I do not think they can be the same person but
they may be of the same family; John Walter of Farley
Hill, brother of Charlotte, was the son of John Abel
Walter, whereas John Walter, the founder of The Times, is
recorded as being the son of a Richard Walter. Farley
Hill was apparently built for a John Walter in 1730 and
this presumably cannot be the founder of The Times, who
died in 1812; it is more likely to be John Walter (d.
1736), grandfather of John Walter of Farley Hill.
According to 'Genealogies of Barbados Families' (p. 581),
a Richard Walter of this family was baptised on 1 Sep
1698 at Barbados, so he might be the father of the
founder of The Times.

***The
Barony of Bergavenny

Gules, a
saltire argent - the arms of Neville, to which Charlotte
Walter (1736-1811) was entitled as
heir general of her grandfather, George Nevill (d. 1720/1), Lord Bergavenny.

the first was
created in 1392 by writ of summons to William
Beauchamp (d. 1411) and passed to Mary Nevill on
the death of her father, Henry Nevill, Lord
Bergavenny, in 1586/7 - and then to her heirs;

the second was
created in 1450 by writ of summons to Sir Edward
Nevill (d 1476) and descended with the first
barony. Note that the barony by writ of 1392
passed on the death in 1448 of Sir Edward's wife,
Elizabeth Beauchamp, the sole heir of her father
in the barony, to her son, George Nevill (d
1492), so the writ to Sir Edward Nevill in 1450
(two years later) must have been a new creation
of a barony by writ of the same name;

the third was
created in 1604 by writ of summons to Edward
Nevill (d. 1622) and passed to Margaret Nevill,
daughter of Sir Thomas Nevill (d. 1628), on the
death of Henry Nevill, Lord Bergavenny, in 1641 -
and then to her heirs;

the fourth was
created in 1661 by writ of summons to John Nevill
(d. 1662) and seem to have expired with him;

the fifth was
created in 1662/3 by writ of summons to George
Nevill (d. 1666) and passed to his son, George
Nevill (d. 1695) and then to the heirs of the
latter's sister, Bridget (CP, Vol. Vi, p. 711);

the sixth was
created in 1695 by writ of summons to George
Nevill (d. 1720/1) and passed to his daughter
Jane (d 1786) - and then to her heirs;

the seventh was
created in 1724 by writ of summons to William
Nevill (d. 1744).

In short,
the Barony of Bergavenny/Abergavenny, which is
unquestionably (in each case) a barony by writ
descendible to heirs general has been treated, on six
separate occasions, as a barony descendible to heirs male
only. In accordance with established peerage law, a new
barony by writ was created each time that a writ of
summons was issued incorrectly to an heir male (see
Complete Peerage, Vol. 10, p. 468, concerning the Barony
of Percy which was created erroneously by writ in 1722),
but this does not affect the legal descent of a
pre-existing barony by writ via the heir general. The key
point here is that neither the Crown, nor Parliament
(except by passing an Act of Parliament to that effect),
nor the Courts (up to and including the House of Lords)
have any legal right to alter the descent of a barony by
writ; thus the resolution of the House of Lords in 1604
(which attempted to alter the succession of the barony in
favour of the heir male) was null and void, though the
subsequent writ of summons to Edward Nevill was valid and
created a new barony by writ, as stated. See the Complete
Peerage (Vol. I under 'Abergavenny') for more
information. Note that Vol. I, p. 34 states of the 1604
case 'Mary [...] was unquestionably entitled to any
Barony in fee possessed by her late father.' and 'Whether
or no her claim, and that of her representatives thereto,
is legally barred by this, or any other subsequent
proceedings of the Crown and the House of Lords, as to
such Barony is open to grave doubt.' In other words the
Complete Peerage is effectively saying that the heir
general of the first barony by writ is still entitled to
claim the barony, regardless of the House of Lords ruling
on the matter; the same applies to the heirs general of
the other baronies.

The
arms of Senior

*The
Senior arms are quartered with those of the Duke family
of Benhall, Suffolk, who trace their descent from Roger le Duc, Sheriff of London in
1190 but who probably came to England at the time of the
Norman Conquest. In fact, the Duke family with whom the
Senior family inter-married were almost certainly of the
Devon not the Suffolk branch. See below for information
on the inter-marriage between the Dukes and the Seniors.
In 'Tombstones of the Island of Barbados' (Vere Langford
Oliver), p. 24, there is a description of a monument to
Thomas Duke (d 1750) in St. Michael's Cathedral where the
arms are described as 'Per fess, argent and azure, three
annulets countercharged, impaling, sable, a griffin
segreant or'. Per fess, argent and azure, three annulets
countercharged are the arms of the Devon branch of the Duke family of Poer Hayes, later Duke Hayes,
later Hayes Barton, near Exeter, which estate the family
owned for over 400 years. Sir Walter Raleigh
(1552/4-1618) was born at Hayes Barton, which was leased
from the Duke family at the time.

The Senior arms on the
original grant dated 26th March 1767.

Lake House, Lake,
Wiltshire. Former home of the family of Duke of Lake, a
branch of the Devon family, from 1550 to 1897. Their arms
(azure, three annulets argent) are above the front door.

The only known picture of
the old Pierrepont Lodge, from 'A Pierrepont Story' by
Robert Hickling.

*Mary
Charlotte ('Minnie') Senior by George Frederick Watts
This picture was exhibited at the National Portrait
Gallery in the 'Watts Portraits: Fame &
Beauty in Victorian Society' exhibition, organised
by Barbara Bryant, in January 2005.

Hyde Park Gate, London.
The original house build by Nassau William Senior at 13
Hyde Park Gate was somewhat more modest than those shown.

*Nassau
John's father was Nassau
William Senior (1790-1864),
barrister, of 13 Hyde Park Gate (now the embassy of Sri
Lanka), educated at Eton and Magdelen College, Oxford. He
married Mary Charlotte Mair (1792-1883), daughter of John
Mair of Iron Acton. Nassau William Senior was one of the most
influential political economists of the 19th
century and he acted as an advisor to successive British
governments on important economic and political issues,
including trade unionism, employment, wages, working
hours, education and Ireland. His attitude to the
business of politics was dismissive and he preferred to
influence affairs from behind the scenes. In 1832 he
wrote 'I have had several propositions to be a
candidate for the ensuing House of Commons, but have
rejected the temptation, believing that what spare time I
have can be more usefully employed in preparing measures
to be introduced by others than in hearing long speeches
and making indifferent ones' (He had a weak voice).
He was the author of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, one of the most significant pieces
of social legislation in British history, which led to the
setting up of the workhouse system. This system was a
much-needed replacement of the old parish-based system of
poor relief, set up in Tudor times, which would have been
(in fact, was being) overwhelmed by the huge social
changes brought about by the industrial revolution, with
devastating social and political consequences. The
workhouse system, while it was unpopular, did provide an
essential safety net for the poor which guaranteed food,
shelter and medical treatment, generally of a better
standard than that enjoyed by agricultural labourers
outside the workhouse, and the workhouse infirmaries
established under the Act were the foundation of the
National Health Service (NHS) - see 'The Origins of the
National Health Service' by Ruth G. Hodgkinson (The
Wellcome Historical Medical Library', 1967), Chapter 1
'The New Poor Law and the Medical Services'*. Nassau
William Senior held the first chair of political economy
at Oxford University (1825-30, 1847-52) and was a Master
in Chancery from 1836-53. In 1832 he was removed, after
one year in office, from his position as Professor of
Political Economy at King's College, London, for
supporting the Catholic Church in Ireland; he proposed
that the rich, minority Protestant Church in Ireland
should give money to impoverished
Irish Catholic Church. The suppression of ten
(Protestant) Irish Bishoprics by the Whig government in
the following year (1833), in accordance with his
recommendations, caused an uproar which led to the
formation of Oxford Movement. He framed the proposal which
settled the Oregon Dispute of 1844-46, in spite of strong opposition
from British politicians, and thereby prevented a war
between Great Britain and the United States (an
interesting aftermath of the Oregon Dispute was the
so-called 'Pig War' of 1859, where over 2,000 British soldiers
and five warships were involved in a stand-off with some
500 American soldiers with 14 cannon in a dispute over
the killing of a pig, which was, as it turned out, the
only casualty). He declined the office of Governor of
Upper Canada and, it is said, a baronetcy. He was for
many years a contributor to the Edinburgh Quarterly,
London and North British Reviews, covering literary as
well as economic and political subjects. We have a
painting of him as a young boy at Eton, where he went in 1802, painted by
Miss Booth, a pupil of Joshua Reynolds. See his biography
'Nassau W. Senior' by S. Leon Levy, published by David
& Charles in 1943.

*Nassau
William Senior wrote to Lord Howick in 1831 arguing for
the compulsory provision of medical treatment to the poor
(Ruth G. Hodgkinson, 'The Origins of the National Health
Service', p. 3) and in 1840 he proposed extending the
statutory right to outdoor relief to cases of urgent
necessity and illness. Section 54 of the 1834
Poor Law Amendment Act, which he drafted, provided that 'it shall not be lawful
for any Overseer of the Poor to give any further or other
Relief or Allowance from the Poor Rate than such as shall
be ordered by such Guardians or Select Vestry, except in
Cases of sudden and urgent Necessity, in which Cases he
is hereby required to give such temporary Relief as each
Case shall require, in
Articles of absolute Necessity, but not in Money, and
whether the Applicant for Relief be settled in the Parish
where he shall apply for Relief or not: Provided always,
that in case such Overseer shall refuse or neglect to
give such necessary Relief in any such Case of Necessity
to poor Persons not settled nor usually residing in the
Parish to which such Overseer belongs, it shall and may
be lawful for any Justice of the Peace to order
the said overseer, by
Writing under his Hand and Seal, to give such temporary
Relief in Articles of absolute Necessity, as the Case
shall require, but not in Money; and in
case such Overseer shall disobey such Order, he shall, on
Conviction before Two Justices, forfeit any Sum not
exceeding Five Pounds which such Justices shall order:
Provided always, that any Justice of the Peace shall be
empowered to give a similar Order for Medical Relief
(only) to any Parishioner as well as Out-Parishioner,
where any Case of sudden and dangerous Illness may
require it; and any Overseer shall be liable to the same
Penalties as aforesaid for disobeying such Order;
but it shall not be lawful for any Justice or Justices to
order Relief to any Person or Persons from the Poor Rates
of any such Parish, except as herein-before provided.'This was the first time that people
acquired a legal right to medical treatment.

'Throughout
life, Senior's disposition was eminently practical and
marked by strong common sense. He was no agitator or
demagogue. This, indeed, accounts to some extent for his
relative unpopularity. While possessing great faith in
the realisation of the possibilities of life, he had
little or no sympathy with sentimentalists and wild
dreamers whose hopes for social regeneration were
grounded on false conceptions of social ideals, or
centred upon vague, transcendental ideas concerning
miraculous interference with human affairs. Senior's
aesthetic tastes were marked by strict simplicity and
repugnance towards all appearances of vain
artificiality.'

Fanny
Kemble (1809-93), the
actress and authoress, wrote of Nassau William Senior:

'A
very clever man, a great talker, good upon all subjects,
but best upon all those on which I am below my average
depth of ignorance, public affairs, questions of
government, the science of political economy, and all its
kindred knowledge... His clear and acute intelligence,
his general information and agreeable powers of
conversation - his universal acquaintance with all
political and statistical details, and the whole
contemporaneous history of European events, and the
readiness and fullness of his information on all matters
of interest connected with public affairs, used to make
Mrs. Grote call him her 'man of facts'.'

For Karl
Marx's comments on Nassau William Senior see 'Capital', vol. IV
('Theories of Surplus Value'), ch. IV - 'Nassau Senior (Proclamation of All
Functions Useful to the Bourgeoisie as Productive.
Toadyism to the Bourgeoisie and the Bourgeois State)'

The Poor Law Amendment Act
of 1834 and the formation of the National Health
Service (NHS)

The 'traditional' view of the
workhouse system.

With regard to the authorship of the
Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which is usually
attributed to Edwin
Chadwick (1800-1890), the Economist (vol.
22, p. 770, 18 June 1864) stated:

'It was Mr. Senior who
drew up the report which produced such a
wonderous effect upon the public mind: it was Mr.
Senior principally who, when the Ministers shrank
aghast from the completeness and consistently
logical principle of the measure recommended - as
is the wont of Ministers to do - gradually
screwed up their courage to the sticking point,
and by his pertinacity and persuasiveness
succeeded at once in convincing their loose
understandings and encouraging their timid
nerves. [...] It rarely falls to the lot of any
individual to do so much permanent good to his
country by the labours of a whole life as Mr.
Senior effected on this occasion by the
well-directed exertions of a few brief years.'

Nassau William Senior stated that
the intention of the Act was 'to raise the
labouring classes, that is to say, the bulk of
the community, from the idleness, improvidence,
and degradation, into which the
ill-administration of the laws for their relief
has thrust them. [...] The Act aims at affecting
these objects, not by denying relief, not by
affecting in the slightest degree the grand
principle of the poor laws, that no man, whatever
be his misconduct, shall want the means of
subsistence, but by providing an administration
by which that subsistence shall be given in a way
which is favourable, instead of destructive to
the welfare of society...'

Southwell Workhouse,
Nottinghamshire. Rather nicer than some modern sink
estates perhaps. This building is now owned by
the National Trust and is open to the public. One
of the attractions is that you can play 'The
Master's Punishment' game.

The
modern view of the workhouse system is perhaps
typified by the following quote:

'The
purpose of the workhouse was to discourage the
poor from claiming poor relief. It was intended
to "dis-pauperise" districts: that is,
to make conditions so harsh and uncompromising in
the institutions that people would prefer to try
to manage outside, rather than enter them.'

This statement merely begs the
question of whether it would have been a good
idea to encourage the poor to
claim poor relief, that is to have made
conditions inside the workhouse so much better
than those outside that they caused a rush of
people into the workhouse to
live at the taxpayers' expense. The naivety of
such a policy should be obvious and it would
hardly have been fair to those ordinary working
families who remained outside, who would have had
to continue to pay taxes to support those in the
workhouse. Conditions in the workhouses were
strict by modern standards (such as they are),
sometimes perhaps unnecessarily harsh (and there
were individual cases of abuse as well, though
not of systematic corruption) but if the
workhouse system had not been in place then
thousands of people would have starved to death
in the streets.

'On
the positive side the workhouse provided better
physical accommodation than most agricultural
labourers' cottages, the workhouse diet contained
about 33% more in solid food than most
agricultural labourers would have, the food was
solid if unappealing and boring, children in the
workhouse were provided with a free education and
were found work and inmates were provided with
free health care.

In
1836, Assistant Commissioner Weale reported that
in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester and
Somerset, the 'aged, impotent and helpless
have... in the majority of cases... been placed
on a higher scale of allowances than they were by
their respective parishes previous to the
formation of the Unions [i.e. before the
1834 Act].' (Ruth G. Hodgkinson, 'The
Origins of the National Health Service', p. 5)

Mealtime in a workhouse. How did
they get there?

Furthermore, and as an illustration
of how historical facts can be misused, many
writers on the subject* emphasize the number of
elderly people in workhouses, insinuating, if not
directly stating, that this was an especially
cruel and oppressive aspect of the system. But
answer one simple question: 'Given that no-one
was legally obliged to enter a workhouse, how did
they get there?' Answer? It was often their
children who put them there, either directly or
through failure to support them. The workhouses,
which were originally intended for the
able-bodied poor, were quickly used as a dumping
ground for the elderly by their own families.
They were also used as a dumping ground for
children (even babies), particularly the disabled
and mentally handicapped, and by 1839 almost half
the workhouse population were children. One can
see that it is easier to blame one individual for
this situation than to face the unpalatable truth
that one's own family dumped their own parents or
disabled children in the workhouse; a case of
collective 'amnesia' comparable to that of France
in relation to collaboration with the Nazis in
the deportation of French Jews during World War
II.

*For an example see here (see
'Introduction') - 'By the 1850s, the majority of those
forced into the workhouse
were not the work-shy, but the old, the infirm,
the orphaned, unmarried mothers, and the
physically or mentally ill.' The truth is that
a). they weren't forced, b). many of the elderly
and disabled were in the workhouse because they
had been abandoned by their own families and c).
it is fortunate that someone was prepared to
provide them with food, shelter and medical care.

One of the practical points to
consider in relation to the subject of workhouse
discipline is that when you have hundreds of
people living under one roof who have, not
necessarily through any fault of their own,
arrived starving, dirty, verminous and possibly
diseased (even contagious), who are mostly
uneducated and some of whom are drunks, thieves,
petty criminals or vagabonds, and possibly
violent, then discipline is absolutely essential
in order to prevent the whole place from
descending into chaos. In many cases, the
separation of families was probably a necessary
precaution against abuse but, even so, the
workhouse rules did in fact allow children to
stay with their mothers or fathers.

In short, it is clear that Nassau
William Senior had more common sense, greater
moral courage, a stronger sense of justice and a
sounder judgement of the true interests of the
people than many modern politicians who (largely
from motives of self-preservation, political
bribery or a kind of 'it's our turn at the trough
of public money' attitude) support the payment of
certain state benefits at a level which has
resulted in large numbers of people choosing to
'live off state benefits as a career option' -
the precise problem that Nassau William Senior
sought to avoid. This not only creates a
dependency culture in the recipients which
undermines the moral foundations of society (and
which has its worst effects on the recipients
themselves and, even more sadly, on their
children) but also leads to a situation where,
for instance, people can jump to the top of
council house waiting lists (ahead of others) as
a reward for their own fecklessness or immorality
(i.e. having illegitimate children). Once
started, this vicious circle of dependency and
moral decline is very difficult to stop, as we
have found to our cost. Nassau William Senior
knew better and had the courage to say so.

The gross historical distortions
concerning the workhouse system that are peddled
as truth, particularly in our schools, simply
perpetuate misunderstanding and alienation, but
it is those who are left ignorant and alienated
(usually in order to suit someone else's
political agenda) who suffer in the long run.
There will be cases of injustice, abuse and
simple failure in any system and it is easy to
highlight a selection of them in order to give a
highly misleading impression of the whole. This
is not just dishonest, it is bad history. The
fact remains that the system succeeded in
providing help for most of the people who needed
it for most of the time; it undoubtedly saved
many lives.

Nobody can pretend that conditions
for the working classes in Victorian Britain were
anything other than hard for most (and indeed
desperate for some - including one of my
great-great-grandfathers, who was a 'gardener's
servant' and who appears to have lived in a
garden shed) or that exploitation did not take
place, but we should remember that these problems
were largely structural; they were simply too big
to be solved overnight and could only be overcome
gradually by the steady exertions of a large
number of right-thinking people from all classes,
together with advances in science and technology.
They got there in the end but, in the meantime,
the poor and vulnerable needed a safety net
(often as a result of abandonment by their own
families); that safety net was the workhouse
system and it was Nassau William Senior who put
it there. Senior himself wrote in his
'Biographical Sketches' (p. 415):

'The ingratitude of mankind
towards their benefactors has long been
notorious. It is not indeed universal... But in
general it will be found that those whose merits
have been promptly and adequately recognised,
have been men who have participated in the
opinions and passions of those around them. They
have been statesmen or soldiers or demagogues,
whose objects have been the same as their
contemporaries and who have differed from them
only in perceiving more clearly or employing more
unscrupulously the readiest means of attaining
them. Men of a higher moral and intellectual
character - men who are unaffected by the
prejudice of their age and country - who refuse
to aid in gratifying irrational desires or in
maintaining irrational opinions - must not expect
power or even popularity. This is particularly
the case where the services rendered have been
those rather of a teacher than a legislator,
where they have consisted in exposing fallacies,
softening prejudices, stigmatising selfishness,
and preparing in one generation the way for
measures which are to be adopted by another.'

The workhouse infirmaries (which
were always under the supervision of a qualified
medical practitioner and which guaranteed medical
attention for the poor) constituted the first
national system of healthcare for the poor and
needy. Over time many of them developed into
substantial hospitals, often a separate building
or group of buildings from the workhouse itself.
The workhouse infirmaries were taken over by
their local authorities as a result of the Local
Government Act 1929 and from this
network was formed, on 5 July 1948, the National
Health Service (NHS), which is now the largest
employer in the country (in fact, the second
largest in the world) and which provides free
healthcare to all. The development of public
healthcare in the UK resulted from the efforts of
many people over a long period but Nassau William
Senior undoubtedly played a key part in laying
the foundations of that service. What is a
falsehood is the idea peddled by left-wing
politicians that the then Labour Government
somehow 'invented' the National Health Service in
1948; nothing could be further from the truth.
See here for more
information on workhouse infirmaries.

Life in the workhouse (1901).

So, in order to assess the workhouse
system it is only necessary to ask two very
simple questions, as follows:

1. How many people went into
workhouses?

2. What would have happened to these
people if there had been no workhouses?

Quite...

*Nassau William Senior's niece,
Ellen Georgina Senior (b. 1849), daughter of Edward James
Senior (1811-1865), of Ashtoun Lodge, Phoenix Park,
Dublin (which now appears to be the clubhouse of the All
Ireland Polo Club, Polo Road, Phoenix Park, Dublin), a
Poor Law Commissioner in Ireland, and Theodosia
McCausland of Fruit Hill (now Drenagh), Limavady, Co.
Londonderry, married Andrew St. John, 16th Lord
St. John of Bletso, of Melchbourne Park,
Melchbourne, Bedfordhsire, by whom she had, with a son,
Sidney, who died young, two daughters, Ellen (1869-1959)
and Margaret (1875-1949), both of whom married but died
without issue.

Drenagh,
Limavady, Co. Londonderry

Melchbourne
Park, Melchbourne, Bedfordhsire (now turned into flats).

John Raven
Senior (1763-1824), Vicar of Durnford, Wiltshire.

On saying
prayers by rote he gave his view:

'No
more effective way could be contrived for producing a
settled habit both of dislike and of inattention to
religious subjects; of thinking it a good and meritoriuos
thing to read good books without even striving to
understand or profit by what he read; even as he had been
accustomed to do in childhood, when he read without the
possibility of understanding... Can anything be more
likely to implant in his mind the notion that it is a
useful and pious exercise and likely to secure God's
favour to repeat with one's lips words in which the mind
takes no part, and which we are not thinking about; that
prayers will act as a kind of magical charm by the
efficacy of the words uttered, like those which the
Papists repeat in an unknown tongue.'

Mary
Senior née Duke (1769-1822)

*Nassau
William's father was John Raven Senior
(1763-1824), Vicar of Compton Beauchamp and
Vicar of Durnford, Wiltshire, who married Mary Duke
(1769-1822), daughter and co-heiress of Henry Duke (d.
1780), Solicitor-General of Barbados, who was killed in a
hurricane trying to protect his wife and daughters. The
'History of Barbados' (J. Poyer, 1808, p. 479-80) says of
Henry Duke:

'Though
liberally endowed by nature with a vigorous
understanding, improved by the studies of a science the
most likely to strengthen and expand the powers of mind,
Mr. Duke was less distinguished by his eminent talents,
than the zeal and spirit with which they were exerted in
the public service. Firmly attached to the interests of
his native country, he was neither intimidated by the
frowns of power, nor allured by its seductive smile, from
diligently pursuing the paths which he thought would lead
to practical prosperity. The activity of his mind was
continually impelling him to attempt to reform abuses, or
to suggest wise and salutary laws for the benefit of the
state. Superior to the sordid considerations of personal
ease and private emolument, his integrity and public
spirit rendered him obnoxious to those drones in the
public hive, who sought public employments without any
intention of performing the duties annexed to them, or
who were desirous only of battening on the spoils of the
people. Every admirer of genuine patriotism must lament
the loss of one whose firmness and integrity marked him
the champion of liberty and the asserter of his country's
rights.'

*John
Raven Senior's father was Nassau
Thomas Senior (d. 29 June 1786) of Upper Church
St., Bath and Broxbourne, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire,
Governor of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa
(est. 1750) from 1757 to 1761, which made him effective
governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), who married
Frances Raven (b. 1733 St. Michael, Barbados m. 1761 St.
Michael, Barbados d. 1790), daughter of Dr. John Raven.
Nassau Thomas Senior's father was Moses Aaron Senior.

Cape Coast Castle - Formerly
headquarters of the Company of Merchants Trading to
Africa. This is where slaves were kept before being
shipped to the Americas. Presumably this is where Nassau
Thomas Senior would have lived between 1757 and 1761 when
he was Governor of the Company.

Cape Coast
Castle - A slave dungeon.

A sale
poster of the time (1769).

I have
been unable to trace the Raven family so far. There was a
Raven family in South Carolina, including a Dr. John
Raven (d 1764) who was a member of the Assembly of South
Carolina. There was also a Raven family of Hadleigh (or
Hadley in some sources), Suffolk, which included a Dr.
John Raven (d 1636), who was physician to Anne of
Denmark. He was the son of another John Raven who was
Richmond Herald from 1597 to 1615. The line of this
family is given as:

4. DR. JOHN RAVEN, b. 1589, of London; Doctor of Phisic;
will prov. 1638; m. (I.) Margaret, dau. of____Mosse of
___, in Co. Suffolke; (II) "Dr. John Raven, widower,
35, m. June 22, 1618, Leah Cotton, spinster, 19, dau. of
Mr. Allen Cotton, Alderman." Mr. C. became in 16_
Sir Allen Cotton, Knt. Lord Mayor of London. He is of the
house of Cotton of Etnall. (v. Burke's Landed Gent.)
(III) 1634, Jane, dau. of James Trussell of London, Gent.
Had by 1st mar. __5. John, and other children named in
will; had by 2nd mar. -6.Cotton, d. young.

5.JOHN RAVEN, Esq. eldest son of the Inner Temple,
London; will dat. July 25, 1655; pro. June 4, 1658 [sic];
m. Margaret, dau. of Henry Peyton of Lincoln's Inn,
London, Esq; had --7. John and 8. Henrie. Pro. this last
John m. Mary____. From the Reg. of St. James Clerkenwell,
Lond., "Elizabeth, dau. of John and Mary Raven, was
baptized Aug. 19, 1669." "John son of do., was
baptized Jan 24, 1672."
John Raven, son of Mr. Samuel, B. Canterbury Catherdral,
Nov. 28, 1624.

Intruigingly,
John Raven of the Inner Temple (above) was buried in the Temple Church, London' in
1658 'in the high chancel neare the minister's seat'. He
must have been an important figure in some way, not just
a run-of-the-mill barrister.

The
conjecture is that the John baptized in 1672 (see above)
was the father of the Dr. John Raven, my ancestor, who
was the father of Frances Raven. Given that Frances was
born in 1733, it is reasonable to infer that her father
was born in the first decade of the 18th century, that is
1700-1710, or thereabouts. A John Raven, son of a John
and Mary Raven, was baptised on 22 March 1701/2 at All
Hallows Staining, City of London.

'Barbados'
by Cynthia Wright - 'An impetuous beauty and a reckless
sea captain unleash a tempest of passion in a lush island
paradise' (Blimey!). The hero, who is called John Raven,
is presumably the figure holding the delightful heroine,
Adrienne Beauvisage (no less). Quick! I must buy a yacht!

Nassau
Thomas Senior (part of a larger portrait)

*The
earliest traceable ancestor in this country is (Moses)
Aaron Senior (1690/1-1736), a wealthy jeweller
of Rathbone Place, London, and later of Red Lyon (or Lion) Square,
Holborn, London, who was naturalized by Act of Parliament 12 Sep 1723 (Patent
Roll 10 Geo 1 part 3 No 11). He had three children, Abraham,
Rachel and Henrietta, before he married his second or
third wife, Elizabeth Baldrick nee Halsey* in 1727,
mother of Nassau Thomas Senior, my ancestor, and Ascanius
William Senior. The family tree in my possession refers
to him as a 'native of Spain' but this is almost
certainly incorrect (I think this was a time when they
tried to conceal their Jewish origins) and he probably
came from Amsterdam, Hamburg, South America or, more
likely, Barbados - see below. The Senior family had
family members, relatives and trading interests in all
these places.

Red Lion Square, Holborn,
London - as it was (looking east).

*She was a
descendant of the Halsey family of Huntingdonshire, at
least according to 'The Parochial History of Cornwall',
London, 1838, vol. III, p. 188, who bore 'argent, on a
pile sable three griffins heads erased of the last'.
Another branch of this family are the Halseys of
Gaddesden Place, Great Gaddesden, Hertfordshire.

The
Senior family were originally Spanish Jews
(Sephardim), most of whom converted to
Catholicism when the Jews were expelled from
Spain in 1492; many converted back again at a
later date. The leading member of the family at
that time was Don*
Abraham Senior** of Segovia, Castile (b
1410/12 d 1493), who rose to become probably the
wealthiest and most powerful Jew in Spanish
history. His courtly appearance and manner, as
well as his diplomatic and financial skills***,
made him a great favourite of Ferdinand of Aragon
and Isabella of Castile and he played an
important role in arranging their marriage, which
led to the union of the kingdoms of Aragon and
Castile****. Don Abraham also effected a
reconciliation between Isabella and her brother, Henry IV,
which allowed Isabella to succeed to the throne
of Castile. As a financier, tax farmer and tax
collector, Don Abraham also played an important
role in funding and supplying the armies that
drove the Moors from Spain, helping Ferdinand and
Isabella to bring to a successful conclusion the
800 year long Reconquista, the crusade against
the Moors. Overall, it is clear that he played a
significant role in the formation of modern Spain
as well as, it appears, the discovery of the New
World, as described below, and this undoubtedly
makes him one of the most significant figures in
15th century Europe. Don Abraham was appointed
Court Rabbi and supreme magistrate of the Jews in
1477 and Treasurer of the Santa Hermandad ('Holy
Brotherhood'), a Catholic militia, in 1488. As
supreme magistrate he held judicial authority
over all the Jews of Castile including, it
appears, the right to try capital crimes. In 1492 Don Abraham was
appointed Regidor of Segovia as a reward for his
services to the Crown. His
appointment as Court Rabbi made him the chief
representative of the Jews in Spain and senior
Rabbi, which some considered unsuitable for
someone without the proper religious
qualifications; his enemies gave him the nickname
'Sonei Or'
or 'Hater of Light'****. Interestingly,
Don Abraham's power was such that on one occasion
even Torquemada, the Inquistor-General, had to
plead with Don Abraham concerning taxes in
Segovia and in 1492 Don Abraham successfully sued
the Inquisition to recover property. Don Abraham
died in 1493 and was apparently buried at the
Monastery of Santa María del Parral, Segovia.

*The title of
'Don' was accorded to certain prominent Jews in
Spain and Portugal at the time; it is not a later
invention. See Ray, Jonathan, 'The Sephardic
Frontier', p. 117 and 127 for examples,
including a 1373 royal confirmation of Ferdinand
I of Portugal.

**I have seen Don
Abraham Senior referred to as Abraham de
Guadalajara, the city north-east of Madrid where
he was apparently born. This name implies that he
did not have a surname, which is a mystery.

***'Reading a
recent attempt to trace [Don Abraham's] career
based on surviving documentation, one cannot but
associate him with the typical image of the
Renaissance courtier.' ('Spain and the
Jews', p. 68).

****'On his
arrival in Toledo, in accordance with a
pre-arranged plan, the young prince [Ferdinand]
went first to Senior's house, and in the evening
was escorted by his host to the princess
[Isabella].' So it appears that Don Abraham
actually introduced the couple. See 'Nassau
W. Senior 1790-1864', S. Leon Levy, David
& Charles, Newton Abbot, 1970, p. 200,
referring to 'Kayserling, M., 'Christopher
Columbus', 1907, p. 23.

****The idea that
Don Abraham Senior was irreligious is a calumny
that was invented by his detractors (even after
some 500 years some writers cannot 'forgive' Don
Abraham for his 'sin' of converting to
Christianity). In fact, what was almost certainly
a secret synagogue attached to Don Abraham's
house in Segovia (now a church) has been recently
discovered. No-one of superficial beliefs would
have gone to the trouble (or risk) or building a
secret synagogue.

The interior of
the secret synagogue attached to Don Abraham
Senior's house in Segovia (photos below), now a
church.

Monastery of Santa
María del Parral, Segovia

The Moorish King,
Boabdil, surrenders Granada, the last stronghold
of the Moors in Spain, to Ferdinand and Isabella
in 1492. Painting by F. Padilla.

The discovery of
the New World. A biographer of Columbus, John
Boyd Thatcher, has written that 'the triumph
of Columbus was the triumph of the Converso Luis
de Santangel, visionary and champion of the
perennial lost cause of history, the cause of the
Jews.' Other writers (notably Salvador de
Madariaga and Simon Wiesenthal) have speculated
that the longings of the Conversos who supported
Columbus may have run parallel to the dreams of
the discoverer himself, namely, an obsessive
dream to find a refuge for the Jews in the lands
that he hoped to find across the Atlantic. This
refuge is of course the United States, whose
military technology now protects Israel. It was a
Sephardic Jew, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), who, in
1883, wrote the famous poem now engraved on the
Statue of Liberty, 'The New Colossus':

Not like the
brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied
pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your
poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to be free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Don
Abraham was apparently one of a small group of
leading Jews who financed Christopher Columbus's
voyage to America. Stephen Birmingham, in his
book 'The Grandees' states (p. 45), with regard
to Columbus' expedition, that 'when still
more money was needed, and when Isabella was on
the point of abandoning the project for lack of
funds, Abravanel turned to other Jewish bankers,
including Luis de Santangel [actually a
Converso, that is a Jew who had converted to
Catholicism or a descendant of such], Gabriel
Sanchez, and Abraham Senior, who had played such
an important role in bringing Isabella and
Ferdinand to the altar. It was because of these
bankers that the expedition was able to leave
Spain under a Spanish flag and, as a result of
their part in the undertaking, Columbus' first
word back to Spain about his discovery was
addressed not to the Queen - which would have
been courteous - but to Senores Santangel,
Sanchez and Senior, his bankers, which was
practical [this letter from Columbus of 1493
is actually addressed to Santangel only but
Santangel was apparently 'lead lender' for his
friends]. As a result of these
activities, Professor H. P. Adams of John Hopkins
[John Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Maryland] has commented: "Not jewels,
but Jews, were the real financial basis of the
first expedition of Columbus".' Don
Abraham met
Columbus in Malaga in August 1487 ('Christopher
Columbus', M. Kayserling, 1907, p. 42,
52-55).

Don Abraham converted
to Catholicism in 1492 when the Jews were
expelled from Spain and took the surname
'Coronel'. His conversion stemmed partly from the
fact that he was an old man in his 80s and partly
from personal pressure exerted by the King and
Queen, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of
Castile, who (along with Cardinal Mendoza and the
Papal Nuncio) subsequently acted as sponsors at
his baptism. It has been said that the Catholic
monarchs threatened reprisals against all the
Jews if Don Abraham did not convert, no doubt
hoping that the conversion of such an important
figure would encourage others to follow suit. As Elijah Capsali (c.
1483-1555) wrote: 'Even Don Abram Seneor and
his [son]-in-law, Meir Melamed, among the
greatest Jews in Spain, were also baptized,
willingly or unwillingly, for I have heard it
rumored that Queen Isabella had sworn that if Don
Abram did not convert, she would wipe out all the
communities, and that Don Abram did what he did
in order to save the Jews, but not from his own
heart. His [son]-in-law also followed him,
because it was important for the queen to have
the two convert, by whatever means necessary and
that they continue to serve her until the day of
her death. And on that day that these two were
converted, their children and families followed
suit, and they worshipped other gods. Then King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella appointed the sons
of Don Abram Seneor as judges and military
officers, and they became prominent throughout
Spain, being given lands over which they ruled,
and all this for changing their religion.'

'The
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' painted in
1889 by Emilio
Sala Frances, Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada.

A
representative of the Jews pleads for the
reversal of the decree of expulsion of 1492. The
figure in the foreground is either Don Isaac
Abravanel or Don Abraham Senior. The figure
gesturing behind the table must be Torquemada;
presumably this is the point at which Torquemada
said that accepting Jewish gold would be like
Judas accepting the 30 pieces of silver.

Don
Abraham steered a difficult course between
serving the Crown and protecting the interests of
his fellow Jews. Behind the scenes he seems to
have tried to minimize their suffering during a
very difficult period. In Segovia in 1485 he
intervened to prevent the rabble-rousing
activities of Antonio de la Pena, a Dominican
monk, against the 'Jewish wolves' who
should be 'driven away by fire';
previously, in other Spanish cities, such
activities had caused immense suffering amongst
the Jews, including hundreds of deaths. In 1486
he interceded with the King to prevent the
expulsion of the Jews from Valmaseda. In 1489 he
paid, largely from his own fortune, the ransoms
of 450 Jews captured at the fall of Malaga,
mainly women who would otherwise have been sold
into slavery*. In 1492 he strenuously opposed the
decree of expulsion and with Don Isaac Abravanel
tried to persuade the Catholic monarchs to
rescind it, offering a vast bribe from his own
fortune.

*See
'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain',
p. 431. 'He [Don Abraham] and Rabbi Meir
Melamed [his son-in-law] bound themselves to pay
the remainder of the ransom in instalments.'
It was not Don Isaac Abravanel who paid the
ransom, as is stated in the Jewish Encylopedia
(Vol. 11, p. 500). See also Kayserling, M., 'Geschichte
der Juden in Portugal', 1867, p. 101.

(Note that the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that it was the
Catholic Church that was responsible for
obtaining backing for Columbus' voyage and that
it was church money that was actually used,
having been merely collected by Santangel.
However, if this was the case then why was
Columbus' first letter describing the discovery
of the New World addressed to Santangel (alone)
and signed 'At your orders'? This would
seem rather odd if Santangel had been a mere tax
collector. Surely Columbus would have written
either to the King and Queen or to his backers in
the Catholic hierarchy? Note that Cardinal
Mendoza, stated in the Catholic Encylopedia to
have been one of Columbus' principal backers, had
a Jewish grandmother.)

Was Don
Abraham the last Exilarch?

King David playing
his harp - The Vespasian Psalter, English, circa
750 AD

As Professor Haim
Beinart has stated in 'The Expulsion of
the Jews from Spain' (p. 420), Don Abraham Senior was
referred to in a letter of 1487 from the Jews of
Castile to the Jews of Rome and Lombardy as 'the Exilarch who is over us'*.
'Exilarch' means 'Prince of the Captivity' or
'Head of the Exile'** (that is, de jure King of
the Jews in exile), a title dating from the
Babylonian Exile of 597-538 BC which appears to
have survived in Mesopotamia
until Tamerlane the Great sacked Baghdad in 1401. The title was hereditary
in and exclusive to the House of David (see I Chronicles iii. 17 et
seq. and II Kings xxv. 27) but was elective
amongst the immediate male members of that family
and subject to rabbinic approval. Given the fact
that the title appears never to have been
accorded to (or used to describe) anyone not
acknowledged by rabbinic authorities to be of
Davidic descent, and that the misuse of such a
title would have been most unlikely, given that
the Bible restricts the title to the House of
David (see above), it is reasonable to infer that
Don Abraham was descended from one of those
branches of the House of David that have been
traced to Spain (see the Jewish Encyclopaedia) and that the title was
accorded to him in an attempt to revive the
Exilarchate after it had ceased to be recognised
in Mesopotamia, as happened in Egypt in 1081
during an interregnum.

*'shall not
turn away the tribe of Judah, he the Exilarch who
is over us'. A translation of the same
letter of 1487 appears in 'Spain and the Jews'
edited by Elie Kedourie (page 70) and refers to
'the staff from Judah that is our Exilarch'.
If this translation is correct then this would
mean that the letter of 1487 contains an
unequivocal statement (to Jewish readers at
least) to the effect that Don Abraham was 'ruler
of the Jews' ('staff') 'of the
House of David' ('from Judah'; that
is the Royal House of Judah, otherwise the House
of David) in accordance with the Blessing of
Jacob (Genesis 49:10): The sceptre
shall not depart from Judah, nor the rulers
staff from between his feet, until tribute comes
to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the
peoples. Genesis 49:10 is variously
translated as:

Masoretic Text

The staff from
Judah will not leave nor the chieftain
from his offspring until will
come He who is sent and to Him is
given the nations

Vulgate

The staff from
Judah will not leave nor the leader until
He comes that is to be sent and he
shall be the expectation of the nations

Qumran cave four
(fragment)

The prince of
the tribe of Judah will be present not
even David's whom will be sitting on the
throne

Targum Onkelos

The keeper of
the power of the house of Judah will not
cease nor the scribe between the sons of
his sons until the Messiah comes

Targum Neophyti

The king
between the house of Judah will not cease
nor the scribes who teach the
law among the sons of his sons until
the Messiah come

So-called LXX or Septuagint

The ruler from Judah
will not leave nor the leader from his
offspring until may come that which is
laid in store and he, the expectations of
nations

Broadly speaking
then Genesis 49:10 can be translated as 'The
kingship will continue in the House of Judah
until the coming of the Messiah' and, on
this basis, the words 'staff from Judah'
mean 'Prince of Judah' or 'King of
Judah'.

The Lion of Judah
- The arms of Senior, as borne by the family in
Holland and Germany, quartered with the arms of
de Mattos, as depicted on the tombstone of Ester
Gomes de Mesquita, wife of Isaac Haim Senior
Texeira (1625-1705), in the Ouderkerk aan den
Amstel cemetery.

Arms of the
Kalonymos family of Narbonne showing the Lion of
Judah, the symbol of the Royal House of Judah
(House of David).

(Note that
Heinrich Graetz in his 'History of The Jews' (Vol. IV p. 228 - see here also) refers to 'an
influential Jew, Abraham Benveniste, surnamed
Senior' who was granted high office under
King Juan II of Castile. That this is indeed
intended to refer to Don Abraham Senior is borne
out by the entry in the index which states:
'Benveniste, Abraham, Senior (Coronel),
tithe-collector, accepts Christianity, 351.
convenes a synod, 229. friend of Isaac Abrabanel,
341. holds office in Castile, 228. negotiates a
royal marriage, 280.' It seems to be clear,
however, that the Abraham Benveniste who was
Court Rabbi under King Juan II of Castile (d
1454) cannot (it appears) have been Don Abraham
Senior because the latter was not appointed to
the post until 1477 (unless he was re-appointed
to the post - interestingly, the first mention we
have of Don Abraham Senior as such is in 1468
(Beinart, p. 413), when he was apparently 56,
which gives rise to the question of what he was
doing before that date). In any event it is quite
probable (indeed likely) that Don Abraham Senior
was a member or close blood relative of the
Benveniste family, possibly via his mother,
because (1) Abraham Benveniste had a son called
Abraham, known as Abraham Benveniste the Elder,
and a son Joseph who had a son called Abraham and
while Abraham Benveniste the Elder does not
appear to be Don Abraham Senior (Don Abraham was
apparently aged 80 when he converted to
Christianity in 1492, which would mean that he
was born in 1412, whereas Abraham Benveniste the
Elder was born in 1433 according to the Jewish
Encyclopaedia), the nomenclature does prove that
an Abraham Benveniste could have been called
Abraham 'the Elder' - 'seneor/senor' means 'sire'
or 'lord' in Spanish but could also have been
used as a mark of respect for an elder (see the Jewish
Encyclopaedia), (2) court positions were 'kept
within the family' as far as possible and, in
fact, such an arrangement suited the crown
because the successor to a post would be trained
into the job by his father, uncle or other
relative, so that it is more than likely that
Abraham Benveniste was succeeded as Court Rabbi
by a relative, who may well also have been
succeeded by a relative, (3) being a member of
the Benveniste family could account for the
reference to Don Abraham Senior as 'Exilarch'
since the Benveniste family were an ancient and
distinguished family whose members were sometimes
designated as 'Nasi' (prince), including Sheshet Benveniste of
Narbonne
(d. about 1209), and they were, on this basis,
originally a Jewish princely family of
Narbonne
(in this context note that Thomas of Monmouth in
his 'Life and Miracles of St. William of
Norwich' (1173 i.e. contemporary with
Sheshet Benveniste of Narbonne above) says 'Wherefore
the chief men and Rabbis of the Jews who dwell in
Spain assemble together at Narbonne, where the
Royal seed [of David] resides', as quoted by
Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln in their book 'Holy
Blood, Holy Grail'). See also Benjamin of
Tudela's 'Book of Travels' (1173) (p. 2) in which he
says of Narbonne: 'A three days' journey takes one
to Narbonne, which is a city pre-eminent for
learning; thence the Torah (Law) goes forth to
all countries. Sages, and great and illustrious
men abide here. At their head is R. Kalonymos,
the son of the great and illustrious R. Todros of
the seed of David, whose pedigree is
established.' Moshe Shaltiel-Gracien, in his
book 'Shaltiel - One Family's Journey Through
History', a history of the Davidic descent
of the Shaltiel family, quotes a reference (p.
156) to Sheshet Benveniste by the contemporary
12th century poet al-Harizi as follows: 'And
there was the residence of our lord, our
excellency, the Prince of All Princes, known by
name from West to East, R. Sheshet, the pillar of
the world and the foundation of all saints (may
his memory be for a blessing).' The famous Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-1569), also known by
her Christianized name Beatriz de Luna Miques,
married Francisco Mendes (originally Benveniste)
and their daughter, Brianda, married Gracia's
nephew, Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos(otherwise 'Duke of
the Aegean'), whose Belvedere palace was at
Ortaköy, overlooking the Bosphorous. The Mendes
family became one of the greatest banking
families in Europe.)

**The 10th century
writer, Nathan ha-Babli, is quoted in the Jewish Encyclopedia as referring to 'our
prince, the exilarch', making it clear that the
Exilarch was regarded as the prince of his
people.

A possible line of
descent is from Abraham 'Nasi' ('Nasi' means 'Prince of
the House of David'), apparently ancestor of
several Marrano families, son of Hiyya Ha-Nasi,
who was born in Spain, son of David (d 1092),
39th Exilarch of the 3rd dynasty***, who
temporarily fled to Spain in 1040 when his
father, Hezekiah, 38th Exilarch, was
imprisoned by the Caliph of Baghdad (Hezekiah was
later executed in 1058). Hezekiah was 117th
Exilarch in succession to Jeconiah (d 559 BC),
1st Exilarch and penultimate King of Judah of the
House of David, who, in 597 BC, was taken by
Nebuchadnezzar as a captive to Babylon.
Alternative possible lines of descent are from
Nissim, 69th Exilarch, who was deposed in 1295
and went to Spain, and Issac Alfasi (d 1103),
descended from Azariah, 34th Exilarch, who fled
to Spain in 1088. Note that the surname 'Senior'
is derived from the Spanish 'senor', that is
'sire' or 'lord', which may, in turn, be a
translation of 'Nasi'; thus, Abraham Senior would
mean Abraham 'Senor' (in fact the name was often
spelled 'Senor'), that is Abraham 'Nasi', that is
Abraham the Prince [of the House of David] - but
this is speculation. 'Coronel', the surname
adopted by the Senior family in 1492, means
'coronet' (used today to denote the rank of
'colonel'). It appears ('Spain and the Jews',
p.68) that Don Abraham signed his name simply
'Abraham', without a surname, which might
indicate that 'Senior' was not a surname but a
title or nickname derived from a title. A
prominent branch of the family in Portugal, the
Counts and Marquises of Penafiel, adopted the
surname 'Da Mata Coronel'. 'Da Mata' means 'of
the bush' but a common variant of 'mata' in
Portugal is 'matos', which in Hebrew means
'tribe'. Thus 'Da Mata Coronel' might be intended
to mean 'the crown of the tribe' - but, again,
this is speculation.

***Various sources
give different numberings.

Don Abraham's
signature on a letter to the Constable of
Castile. From 'The Expulsion of the Jews from
Spain', p. 500.

The 12th century
writer, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (Spain),
describing his visit to Baghdad in his'Book of Travels' (1173), noted that Daniel,
52nd Exilarch of the 3rd dynasty (reigned
1150-74), who he described as 'Our Lord the
Head of the Captivity of all Israel', and
who was the great-great-grandson of David, 39th
Exilarch (above), had 'a book of pedigrees
going back as far as David, King of Israel';
this pedigree was clearly accepted as authentic
by both the rabbinic authorities of the time and
the Jewish people at large. While the pedigrees
of the Exilarchs undoubtedly contain errors,
inconsistencies and even some spurious entries,
this does not mean that such pedigrees cannot be
regarded as historical or cannot point to a
fundamental historical truth, which is that for a
period of around 2000 years (597 BC to 1401 AD),
and almost reaching into the modern era, though
not continually throughout that period, there was
a dynasty of rulers of the Jews acknowledged by
both the rabbinic authorities and the Jewish
people at large, and indeed by the Caliphs and
others under whose rule the Jewish people lived,
to be not just of Davidic descent but rightful
heirs to the throne of David. According to
Benjamin of Tudela, when the Exilarch went to
visit the Caliph the heralds announced his coming
with the words "Make way for our Lord,
the Son of David." ("Amilu
tarik la Saidna ben Daud."). As David
Einsiedler stated in his article'Descent From King
David - Part II' ('Avotaynu: The
International Review of Jewish Genealogy',
1993, Vol. IX, No. 2, page 34)'Genealogists who
value religious tradition could say that our
rabbis and sages did not make statements about
Davidic descent lightly, that they were
trustworthy and insisted on truth.'

The Babylonian
Exilarchate had been seated (in an official
rather than physical sense) at Baghdad since the
8th century AD, having moved, it appears, from
Babylon to Seleucia on the Tigris in the 4th
century BC, following the founding of that city
in around 305 BC by Seleucus Nicator (c 358-281
BC), one of the generals of Alexander the Great
(356-323 BC); to Ctesiphon in the 2nd century AD,
after Seleucia was burned by the Emperor Trajan
(53-117) in 117 AD; to Damascus after 637 when
Ctesiphon was sacked by Umar (d 644), 2nd Caliph
and Companion of the Prophet Mohammed (d 632),
during the Arab conquest of Persia; to Baghdad
after 750 when the Umayyad caliphate was
overthrown by the Abbasids at the Battle of Zab.
Note that Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon and
Baghdad are all in the same vicinity, so that it
appears that the physical seat of the Exilarchs
remained in the same place, even during the
period when political power briefly shifted to
Damascus. The physical seat of the Exilarchs
seems to have been at Nehardea from the time of Jeconiah,
at Sura from the beginning of the 5th century AD
and then at Pumbedita from the end of the 8th
century until the fall of Hezekiah, 38th Exilarch
and last gaon, in 1040; after that the Exilarchs
seem to have been seated at Baghdad. The
Exilarchate survived the sack of Baghdad by
Hulagu Khan (1217-1265), grandson of Genghis Khan
(c 1162-1227) and destroyer of the Caliphate, in
1258 (although it is said 800,000 people were
killed, the Jews were specifically spared) and
the later collapse of the Mongol Khanate of
Persia after 1335 into a motley of successor
dynasties, including the Jalayirids (whose
capital was at Baghdad), the Muzafarids, the
Eretnids, the Sarbadarids and the Karts. Indeed,
from the destruction of the neo-Babylonian Empire
by Cyrus the Great in 538 BC to the sack of
Baghdad by Tamerlane the Great in 1401 AD, a
period of nearly 2000 years, the Exilarchate
survived the violent collapse of 11 empires****,
namely:

the
Neo-Babylonian Empire (538 BC);

the Persian
Empire (331 BC);

the Greek
Empire (323 BC);

the Seleucid
Empire (141 BC);

the Parthian
Empire (224 AD);

the Sassanid
(or Second Persian) Empire (637 AD);

the Orthodox
Caplihate (661 AD);

the Umayyad
Caliphate (750 AD);

the Abassid
Caliphate (1258 AD);

the Mongol
Khanate of Persia (1335 AD);

the Jalayirid
Emirate (1401 AD).

Baghdad was
subsequently ruled by Shah Rukh, son of Tamerlane
the Great, from 1401 to 1410, the Qara Quyunlu or
Black Sheep Turkmen (1410-1469), the Aq Quyunlu
or White Sheep Turkmen (1469-1508), the Safavids
(1508-1534), the Ottoman Turks (1534-1917), the
British (1917-1921) and the Hashemite dynasty
(1921-1958). Although Tamerlane the Great ended
the 'official' recognition of the Exilarchate
after he sacked Baghdad in 1401, it appears that
the line of Exilarchs continued to be
acknowledged by the Jewish community in Baghdad
until the death of the last heir of that line,
Pasha, called 'King of the Jews', in 1825, after
which the heirship passed to the Dayan family,
descended from a house of Palestinian Princes.
Pasha (d 1825) was descended from Chizkiya,
45/47th Exilarch (reigned 1092-94, 1096-97),
elder brother of Hiyya Ha-Nasi above. The Dayan
family are descended from Josiah, 27th Exilarch
(reigned 930-933), younger brother of David
26/28th Exilarch (reigned 921-930, 933-940), who
was the great-great-grandfather of Hezekiah, 38th
Exilarch, mentioned above.

****'The
Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose,
filled the planet with sound and splendor, then
faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek
and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise,
and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up
and held their torch high for a time, but it
burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have
vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all,
and is now what he always was, exhibiting no
decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of
his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling
of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are
mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he
remains. What is the secret of his immortality?'
- Mark Twain

It is asserted
that the first properly historical (that is
provable from historical evidence outside the
Bible) Exilarch was Nahun (reigned 140?-170 AD).
Earlier Exilarchs, based on the genealogies in
the Bible (I Chronicles iii. 17 et seq.*****),
are regarded by some authors as legendary, mainly
on the basis that the Josephus does not mention
the office******. However, while earlier
Exilarchs might well have been 'legendary' in the
sense that they were not officially recognised as
Exilarchs, this does not mean either that they
are 'legendary' in the physical sense, that is
that the individuals recorded in the genealogies
never existed, or that they were not Exilarchs
(the heirs of King David) by right of blood. No
such conclusion can be drawn from Josephus.

*****The Biblical
Exilarchs (I Chronicles iii 17-24)

17 And the
sons of Jeconiah; Assir, Salathiel his son,
18 Malchiram also, and Pedaiah, and Shenazar,
Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.
19 And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and
Shimei: and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam,
and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister:
20 And Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and
Hasadiah, Jushabhesed, five.
21 And the sons of Hananiah; Pelatiah, and
Jesaiah: the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan,
the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shechaniah.
22 And the sons of Shechaniah; Shemaiah: and the
sons of Shemaiah; Hattush, and Igeal, and Bariah,
and Neariah, and Shaphat, six.
23 And the sons of Neariah; Elioenai, and
Hezekiah, and Azrikam, three.
24 And the sons of Elioenai were, Hodaiah, and
Eliashib, and Pelaiah, and Akkub, and Johanan,
and Dalaiah, and Anani, seven.

******'that
these Biblical Exilarchs are legendary is obvious
from the fact that Josephus does not mention the
institution' - Goode, Alexander D., 'The
Exilarchate in the Eastern Caliphate, 637-1258',
'The Jewish Quarterly Review', New Ser.,
Vol. 31, No. 2 (Oct., 1940), p. 149. This is not
correct. Josephus, in his 'Antiquities of the
Jews', book XI, chapter 3, para 10, says 'and
the governor of all this multitude thus numbered
[being the Jews who Cyrus the Great allowed to
return to Jerusalem] was Zorobabel, the son of
Salathiel, of the posterity of David.' So
Josephus does in fact refer to one of the
individuals mention in I Chronicles iii 17-24 and
it is clear that this person was the ruler of the
Jews and of Davidic descent. Though not actually
referred to by the title 'Exilarch' it is clear
that Zorobabel was ruler of the Jews in exile,
that is a de facto exilarch (since 'exilarch'
means 'ruler in exile'), since he is referred to
as 'Zorobabel, the governor of the Jews'
(book XI, chapter 1, para 3). Thus, we
have, on the basis of Josephus, a de facto
historical exilarch over 600 years earlier than
is often asserted.

Note, in this
context, that the title of 'Pope' was first used
in the third century but no-one has claimed as a
consequence that the heads of the Catholic Church
in Rome before that period should not be
described by that title.

Sir Iain
Moncreiffe of that Ilk (1919-1985), Albany Herald
of Arms (Court of the Lord Lyon), writing in
'Books & Bookmen', February-March 1976,
wrote: 'What's already known is that the Jews
in exile in Asia were ruled under the Persian and
later the Arab empires by 'Princes of the
Captivity' called 'Exilarchs', with a genealogy
claiming descent by at least the second century
from the Royal House of David, probably
with justification because it was based on their
acceptance.' (Quoted
from 'Lord of the Dance', London, 1986,
Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, p. 155).

In addition to the
Babylonian Exilarchs there were several dynasties
of Palestinian Princes, that is dynasties of
princes in Palestine of Davidic descent, who
maintained what appears to have been an
intermittent authority parallel but subsidiary to
the Babylonian Exilarchs, whose suzerainty they
seem generally to have acknowledged. The
existence of two parallel dynasties of secular
rulers reflected the fact that there were two
main centres of world Jewry at that time, namely
Babylon/Mesopotamia and Judea; there was a
similar parallel arrangement in religious
affairs, namely between Jerusalem and the great
Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita.

Initially, it appears, there
were two lines of princes, the Tobitite
and Onaidite lines, descended from Tobit
and Onaid, co-rulers and
twin sons of Hananiah, Prince of Israel
(reigned 425-405 BC), who was the son of
Hattush, 1st Prince of Israel (reigned
457-445 BC), son of Meshullam, 4th
Exilarch of the 1st dynasty. Hattush
returned to Palestine with Ezra the
Scribe who proclaimed him 'royal heir'.
These lines appear to have survived (but
only intermittently ruled) until at least
the period of Herod the Great (74-4/1
BC).

At this time another dynasty
of Palestinian Princes or Patriarchs
emerged in the person of Hillel
the Great, who was the teacher
of Jesus Christ. This dynasty survived
until the office of Palestinian Patriarch
was abolished by Theodosius II (410-450),
Emperor of Byzantium, in 425 AD.

A further dynasty, founded
in about 550 by Sutra,
son of Mar-Zutra (x 520), 30th Exilarch
of the 2nd dynasty, survived until about
890 at Tiberias, with a rival dynasty
seated at Jerusalem from 691 to 1099,
presumably ending with the massacre of
the population of Jerusalem during the
First Crusade.

In 1187 another line of
Palestinian Princes, ancestors of the
Dayan family, was founded by Yosef
Ha-Nasi, descended from Josiah,
27th Exilarch (reigned 930-933) as stated
above, and continued until 1678 when
Moshe Ha-Nasi was deposed by the Turks.
Subsequently the 'Nasi' (so-called) was
appointed by the Turkish governor until
the Sultan abolished the office in 1849,
when the duties of the office were taken
over by the Hakham Bashi, Chief Rabbi of
the Ottoman Empire. In 1933 Yitzak Dayan,
of this line, Chief Rabbi in Aleppo
(Syria), was recognized by rabbinic
authorities as the 'Davidic heir' and the
heirship has presumably passed down to
the current day in the Dyan family.

There would have
been numerous other descent lines of course;
those listed are those that rose to prominence in
Judea/Palestine.

The evidence
therefore indicates that Don Abraham Senior was
of Davidic descent but this cannot have been
unique amongst the leading families of the
Sephardim, who formed a closely-related and
exclusive elite. Various Sephardic families claim
Davidic descent, including those of
Abravanel/Abarbanel, Shaltiel and Benveniste, and
in respect of the two latter at least there are
published pedigrees tracing their Davidic
descent; a tombstone dated 27 August 1097, now in
the Museo Sefardi in Toledo, records the death of
a Rabbi Shemuel bar Shealtiel ha Nasi.
It is possible that the title of Exilarch was
accorded to Don Abraham Senior in an attempt to
resurrect the Exilarchate in Spain after it had
ceased to be recognized in Mesopotamia, but this
only lasted until the Jews were expelled from
Spain in 1492. After that, it would seem, there
was no Jewish community of sufficient size,
stability or prestige to allow for the
resurrection of the Exilarchate, until 1933 that
is. Note that there was a historical precedent
for attempting to establish the Exilarchate
outside Mesopotamia. This happened in Egypt in
1081 when David ben Daniel, a descendant of the
house of Exilarchs, was proclaimed Exilarch by
the rabbinic authorities of that country; the
attempt ended with his downfall in 1094.

This would appear
to be the most common sense solution to the
question of why we find the title of 'Exilarch'
being used in Spain at that time. Further, the
existence of families of Davidic descent in Spain
at that time should not be viewed as
extraordinary, given that there was such a
dynasty in Palestine at that time; indeed, the
absence of such families from Spain would have
been a far greater oddity given the long-standing
prominence of the Jewish community in that
country.

The fact that Don
Abraham Senior appears to have had no surname;
the fact that he was, apparently, born in
Guadalajara, where the palace of the Dukes of
Infantado, heads of the Mendoza family, is
situated; the fact that he had close links with
the Mendoza family (including the fact that his
grand-daughter, Maria Coronel, married Juan Bravo
(x 1521), a scion of that family); the fact that
he was clearly close to Cardinal Mendoza, who
acted as one of the sponsors at his baptism in
1492; the fact that in 1492 he adopted the name
Coronel, apparently associated (according to
Beinart, 'The Expulsion of the Jews from
Spain', p. 461) with the Guzman family,
Dukes of Medina-Sidonia, who were very closely
related to the Mendoza family, indicate that
there is a possibility that Don Abraham Senior
may actually have been an illegitimate child of a
member of either the Mendoza or Guzman families
by a Jewish woman. Such liaisons were not
unknown, even amongst the royal family I
understand. Such a parentage would not have
affected his Jewishness (in the eyes of Jewish
people - although he could not, presumably, have
been Exilarch in this case) since that comes
through the mother, but it may make some sense of
the unanswered questions surrounding Don Abraham,
such as 'Why don't we know the name of his
father?' Given that Don Abraham took the name
Fernan Perez Coronel in 1492, I wonder whether
Don Abraham's father might have been Fernan Perez
de Guzman (d 1460)*, son of Pedro Suarez de
Toledo and Leonor de Guzman, and second cousin of
Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana
(1398-1458). See Nader, Helen, 'The Mendoza
Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350-1550',
p. xv). On the other hand, it may be that Don
Abraham's father was a Jew who simply worked for
one of these families in a trusted position, but
that would leave unanswered the question of why
Don Abraham was described as 'Exilarch' or even,
according to one translation (see above) 'the
staff from Judah that is our Exilarch', an
even more specific description.

The Palace of
Infantado, Guadalajara, which dates from about
1480 and replaced an earlier building.

The
translation of the letter of 1487 which appears
in 'Spain and the Jews' edited by Elie
Kedourie (p. 70) and refers to 'the staff
from Judah that is our Exilarch' explains
the use of the word Exilarch by saying that its
use 'is consistent with an ideology which
legitimized institutions by mentioning
antecedents', thus implying that the leading
Jew in any large community could be referred to
as 'Exilarch', a usage that would seem to be most
unlikely and, indeed, of which I can find no
instance. The position of 'court rabbi' was
long-established in both Spain and Portugal and
some previous holders of the post had exercised
similar powers to those exercised by Don Abraham
Senior, and yet, as far as I am aware, no
previous court rabbi had been called 'Exilarch'.
See 'The Sephardic Frontier' by Jonathan
Ray. Note, in this context, that the title of
'Nasi' was debased over time, so that it came to
be used by prominent families with no accepted
Davidic descent, but sometimes to bolster such a
claim (e.g. Sassoon), and the word now equates to
'President' or 'Chairman'; the word for Prince is now
"Nasich".

Apparently
all descendants of David, even in the female
line, are rightly called "Nasi" -
"Prince" - to honor their royal
descent' ('Shaltiel - One Family's Journey
Through History', Moshe Shaltiel-Gracian, p.
134).

King
David

The
Senior name still seems to carry some weight
amongst the Jewish matriarchs of New York, as
recorded by Stephen Birmingham in his book 'The
Grandees', where he states (p. 39) 'The
two principal matchmakers [in relation to
the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and
Isabella of Castile] were Don Abraham Senior
of Castile and Don Selemoh of Aragon, men of such
prominence that they had never taken the trouble
to be baptized. ("Yes", Aunt Ellie
would assure the children when she spoke of these
great men, "We are connected, we are
connected.")'.

It
is worth noting that Don Isaac Abravanel
(1437-1508) wrote of the Expulsion that 'In the end there left,
without strength, three hundred thousand people
on foot, from the youngest to the oldest, all at
one time, from all the provinces of the king, to
wherever they were able to go. Their
King went before them, G-d
at their helm. Each pledged himself to G-d anew.
Some went to Portugal and Navarre, which are
close, but all they found were troubles and
darkness, looting, starvation and pestilence.
Some traveled through the perilous ocean, and
here, too, G-d's hand was against them, and many
were seized and sold as slaves, while many others
drowned in the sea. Others again, were burned
alive, as the ships on which they were traveling
were engulfed by flames.' This contemporary
source implies that there was a King of the Jews
(i.e. an Exilarch) in Spain at that time. I have
seen it mentioned elsewhere that this royal line
ended up in Portugal.

One of Don
Abraham's grand-daughters, Maria Coronel, married
the Spanish nobleman Juan Bravo (c.1483-1521), one of the
three leaders of the 'first modern revolution',
namely the 'War of the Communities' of 1520-1521, which was a
revolution against the Emperor, Charles V. They
had two children, Andrea Bravo de Mendoza and
Juan Bravo de Mendoza. Juan Bravo's mother, Maria
de Mendoza, was a daughter of the
Count of Monteagudo. Maria de Mednoza was of the
same family as Cardinal Mendoza (see above), who
some sources state may have had a Jewish
grandmother. It would seem possible therefore
that Juan Bravo was partly Jewish and he married
the grand-daughter of a Converso Jew, Don Abraham
Senior. The Mendoza family are probably the most
illustrious in Spain, holding numerous titles,
including that of Duke of Infantado (created
1475), some 10 years older than the Premier
Dukedom in the UK, the Dukedom of Norfolk.

Statue of Juan
Bravo in Segovia, Spain - a Jewish revolutionary?

Execution of the
Comuneros of Castile (Juan de Padilla, Juan Bravo
and Francisco Maldonado) in 1521, by Antonio
Gisbert (1834-1901). They were known as the
'Caballeros Comuneros' (literally I guess
'Communist Knights') and they inspired several
later revolutions, including one in Paraguay and another in Colombia.

Before their
execution, Juan de Padilla said to Juan Bravo: 'My
Lord Bravo, yesterday we fought as knights, today
we must die like Christians.' Juan Bravo
then asked to be executed first, as he 'did
not wish to see the death of such a good knight.'

The Mendoza family
intermarried with another well-known Spanish
family, that of de la Vega, a name made famous
centuries later by 'The Mask of Zorro', thus
giving rise to a (sort of) connection between a
real 16th century revolutionary, Juan Bravo, and
a fictional 19th century one, Don Diego de la
Vega or Zorro.

Zorro - 'He could
be anywhere.'

Here are the
closing lines of the film:

Zorro
(whispering to his baby son):'And
so it was. Lighting split the sky, thunder shook
the earth, and then all was quiet. The great
warrior known as Zorro was gone. The people of
the land gave him a hero's funeral, the largest
anyone had ever seen. They came from far and wide
to say farewell to their brave and noble
champion. But don't worry, little Joaquin.
Whenever great deeds are remembered, your
grandfather will live on. For there must always,
always be a Zorro. And some day, when he's
needed, we will see him again... on his fearsome
steed Tornado, riding like the wind, his sword
blazing in the sun... leaping, jumping, swinging
through the air... fighting like a lion. Fighting
like a tiger. Fighting... [sees Elena
watching him] ...as safely as possible.Elena:'Is this your idea of
putting the baby to sleep? ...When I sleep, I
will dream of this dashing rogue Zorro. But what
face shall I give him?'Zorro: 'He has
been many different men, but he has loved you as
all of them.'Elena:'How can I refuse
such a man? Do you know where I might find him?'Zorro:'You know Zorro. He
could be anywhere.'

Joseph Senior Saraiva, a
descendant of Don Abraham Senior as detailedbelow, died in Barbados in 1694 and was
possibly the grandfather of my ancestor, (Moses)
Aaron Senior (b 1690/1 d 1736), who was described
as a West Indian Jew. (Moses) Aaron Senior also
married the widow of an estate owner of Barbados
and his children owned estates on Barbados,
including one called 'Seniors'.

Tomb of Joseph
Senior Saraiva on Barbados.

I have found the
following on the Haring-Santen Family Tree, which is based on the
following sources: Jose Amador de los Rios, 'Estudios
historicos, politicos y literarios sobre los
Judios de Espana', p 445; Jose Amador de los
Rios, 'Historia social, politica y religiosa
de los judios de Espana y Portugal', iii, p
279-296; Kayserling, 'Geschichte der Juden in
Portugal', p 83 & 102. See also the pedigree prepared by the Portuguese
historian, Luis de Bivar Pimentel Guerra, in
1976.

Don
Abraham Senior/Fernando (Fernao) Perez Coronel
of Castile (1410/12-1493), lived at Segovia, near
Madrid = (1) Dona Violante de Cabrera* (sister or
close relative of Andrés de Cabrera (1430-1511),
1st Marquis of Moya**) and (2) Dona Maria Sanches
del Rio and had issue an eldest son;Juan ('Joao') Perez Coronel (d c
1504/5), lived at Segovia, described as a 'Knight
of Philip I [King of Spain 1504-6] in France'
i.e. ambassador = Cataline del Rio and had issue;Inigo Lopez Coronel (b c 1490),
born in Segovia = Not known and had issue;Francisco Coronel, lived at
Salvaterra, Spain, served in the army of Flanders
= Not known and had issue;Antonio Coronel (b c 1523),
moved to Moncao, Portugal in 1588 = (c 1548)
Isabel Dias*** (b c 1527) and had issue;Heitor Coronel (b c 1549) = (c
1574) ? Saraiva (b c 1553) and had issue;Antonio Saraiva Coronel of
Hamburg (d 1665) - see below.

*The mother of
Cervantes, author of 'Don Quixote', seems to have
been of Jewish extraction. His paternal
great-grandmother was a Catalina de Cabrera.
Perhaps there is a connection here.

**Empress Eugénie
of France (18701920), wife of the Emperor,
Napoleon III (1808-1873), was the daughter of Don
Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero (1785-1839),
17th Marquis of Moya. The death of her only son,
the Prince Imperial, in action against Zulus in
1879 prevented her Jewish blood from gracing the
throne of France.

Eugénie, Empress
of the French.

***In 1540 a Luis
Diaz, 'the Messiah of Setubal', Portugal, a poor,
uneducated shoemaker, claimed to be the rightful
heir to King David's throne and made messianic
claims. His pedigree from ancient Jewish royalty
was apparently known from his family's records,
who were 'Marranos' or Hispanic Jews. The
popularity of Luis Diaz caught the attention of
the Spanish Inquisition which arrested and burned
him at the stake in 1542. I have no idea whether
Luis Diaz and Isabel Dias were related (it is a
common name) but they lived coterminously. It is
worth noting for further investigation.

Antonio Saraiva
Coronel of Hamburg (d 1665), above, was the
father of Joseph Senior Saraiva (d 1694 Barbados)
(see below) by his wife Ester de Joao Ramires
(Studemund Halevi, Hamburg, Biogr. Lexicon der
Hamburger Sefarden, pages 790 and 791, which also
refers to Antonio's brother, David (b c 1575
Amarante, Portugal d 1650 in Brazil) as a
descendant of Don Abraham Senior). David's young
son, Joseph, who died on 11 April 1614, was the
first person to be buried in the Ouderkerk aan den Amstel cemetery.

a).
Hanah Senior, daughter of Joseph Senior Saraiva,
died on Barbados on 14 Dec 1679, which proves
that Joseph Senior Saraiva married and had at
least one child (E M Shilstone, 'Jewish
Monumental Inscriptions in Barbados', p 97);
b). a Barbados parish register of 1680 records a
Joseph Senior, a Jew, with '3 persons', who are
probably a wife and two children or three
children; they cannot be slaves because these are
listed separately; on the preceding page the
column is headed 'children'; wives are listed
with their husbands (for non-Jews) but the wives
of Jews do not seem to have been included at all
(J C Hotten, 'Persons of Quality etc.',
p 450);
c). a Jacob Senior sold two slaves on Barbados in
1695 (N D Davis, 'Additional Notes on the
History of the Jews of Barbados', Vol 19, p
174);
d). an Aaron Senior witnessed the will of a
Tobias Clutterbuck on Barbados on 15 Oct 1695 ('Barbados
Wills', Vol 2, p 66), so it would seem
likely that Jacob Senior and Aaron Senior were
the children of Joseph.
e). an Aaron Senior, husband of Sarah Dias, is
mentioned in the will of a Sarah Israel Dias
(aunt of her namesake) in 1695 (Wilfred S
Samuels, 'A Review of the Jewish Colonists of
Barbados in the Year 1680').

Is
there a connection?

The Aaron Senior
who witnessed the will in 1695 cannot be my
ancestor (Moses) Aaron Senior because the latter
was (apparently) born in 1690/1 (see SOG Great
Card Index) and would therefore have been 4 or 5
years old in 1695. Similarly, the Aaron Senior
recorded as the husband of Sarah Dias in 1695
cannot be my ancestor (Moses) Aaron Senior for
the same reason - so we have two Aarons. The
conjecture must be that my ancestor (Moses) Aaron
Senior (d 1736) was the son of the Aaron Senior
who was recorded as the husband of Sarah Dias in
1695 and that the latter Aaron Senior was child
of Joseph Senior Saraiva (d 1694). Aaron, son of
Joseph, would probably have been born in the
early 1670s, given that his father appears to
have arrived in Barbados in 1669 (Studemund
Halevi, Hamburg, Biogr. Lexicon der Hamburger
Sefarden, p 801) and probably married shortly
afterwards - but it is also possible that Joseph
arrived in Barbados with a young family. Thus,
Aaron, son of Joseph, would have been about 20
when my (Moses) Aaron was born in 1690/1, which
would not be unreasonable.

Note that
the book 'Jews of Britain'
by P H Emden (published c.1943) states, page 58,
footnote 1, 'NASSAU WILLIAM
SENIOR, son of the Rev. John Raven Senior, Vicar
of Durnford, Wiltshire, and great grandson of
Aaron Senior, a West Indian Jew, who had been
naturalised in 1723 ...'
but there is no indication of the source of this
information.

There can be very
little doubt that my ancestor, Moses Aaron Senior
(1690/1-1736), was a member of the
Senior/Senior-Coronel/Coronel family. It is
merely a question of identifying to which of the
many branches existing at that time he belonged.

Barbados.

Fernao
Perez Coronel/Fernao Nunez Coronel

Abraham Senior
changed his name to Coronel when he converted to
Catholicism in 1492. There has been some
confusion as to whether Don Abraham changed his
name to Fernao Perez Coronel or to Fernao Nunez
Coronel. Beinart in his 'Expulsion of the Jews
from Spain' takes the view that Don Abraham was
in fact the latter and that Fernao Perez Coronel
was the new name of Rabbi Meir Melamed (d 1493),
Don Abraham's son-in-law, who was the King's
Secretary and a member of the Royal Council from
1492. On this basis the descendants of Fernao
Perez Coronel were descended from Don Abraham
(Fernao Nunez Coronel) via his daughter, whose
name was possibly Reina. Other historians and
genealogists believe that Don Abraham Senior was
Fernao Perez Coronel and some state specifically
that Baer (from whom Beinart derived his opinion)
is wrong (Norman Roth, 'Conversos,
Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from
Spain' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002,
pp. 129-130).

Many of Don
Abraham's descendants seem to have used or
reverted to the Senior name when it was safe for
them to do so. Like most other Jews at this time
they often used a Christian-sounding alias,
sometimes more than one. 35 Dutch Jews named
Coronel, nearly all from Amsterdam, were killed
in the Holocaust, mostly at Auschwitz, including
a 10 year old girl called Rebecca (Thursday 23
July 1942) and other children.

The 1492
expulsion of the Jews its aftermath

This branch of the
family seems to have moved from Segovia, Spain,
to Salvaterra, Galicia, Spain (near the
Portuguese border - to provide an escape route I
imagine) and from there they spread out, mostly
via Portugal, to Amsterdam, Brazil (Recife,
Pernambuco), Curacao, the West Indies, Hamburg
and so on. In addition, members of the family
were constantly moving between these places,
sometimes back and forth. Some branches of the
family remained in Portugal, as described below.
Generally, the family seems to have been
prominent members of all the Jewish communities
in which they settled.

A Senior family
marriage contract from Hamburg (1690). Marriage
of Samuel Senior de Mattos and Rachel Senior de
Mattos. Note the coat of arms at the bottom,
which are the arms exemplified below, namely
quarterly, 1st and 4th, gules (red) a lion
rampant or (gold), 2nd and 3rd, gules (red) a
tree vert (green) upon a terrace. The shield
seems to be surmounted by a crown but the crest
should be 'a lion rampant issuant out of a
crown or'.

Under the wedding
canopy are the bride and groom, with his parents
on the right: Don Manuel Teixeira de Sampayo,
alias Isaac Senior Teixeira (1631-1705) and his
third wife Esther Gomes de Mesquita (their
marriage in 1671 is recorded in the Amsterdam
Municipal Archives). To the left of the bride are
her parents and Diego Ribca Nunes Henriques
Teixeira de Mattos, aka Abraham Senior Teixeira
de Mattos (1650-1701). Also shown are other
family members, guests and a band. The
officiating rabbi was leading Chacham Abraham
Cohen Pimentel. In the tradition of the
seventeenth-century art two virtues are depicted
- on the left 'Love' with a relevant Bible quote
about Rachel from Ruth (4, 11) and on the right
'Abundance' with a text referring to the groom (1
Samuel 3, 19 - 'As Samuel grew up, the Lord
was with him and let none of his words fall to
the ground.'). Both Samuel and his wife, who
lived in Amsterdam from 1690, were buried in the
cemetery at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (see a photo
of her gravestone below).

The Senior/Coronel
family had many distinguished descendants in
Portugal including, according to notes in my
possesion (prepared by the Portuguese historian,
Luis de Bivar Pimentel Guerra), Luiz Gomes
d'Elvas Coronel (b 1547) of Loures, Lisbon, who
was recognised by Philip II (III of Spain) as a
noble by virtue of his descent (great-grandson)
from Fernao Perez Coronel (charter dated 26
September 1607, grant of arms of Coronel impaling
da Mata on 16 February 1600). The family changed
its name from Coronel to da Mata Coronel, then to
da Mata (dropping the Coronel) and then to da
Mata de Sousa Coutinho (on marriage to a daughter
of the de Sousa Coutinho family) and is,
according to my notes, currently represented by Manuel Maria Salema da Mata
de Sousa Coutinho (b 1973), 6th Marquis and 7th
Count of Penafiel. The family built two palaces, the
140-room Palace of Correio-Mor at Loures, near
Lisbon, essentially their country villa, and the
Palace of Penafiel in Lisbon itself (see below
for pictures of both palaces). See 'Nobiliario
das Familias de Portugal', Felgueiras Gayo,
Carvalhos de Basto, 2nd Ed., Braga, 1989 and 'Pedatura
Lusitana', 6 vols., Cristovao Alao de
Morais, Carvalhos de Basto, 2nd Ed., Braga, 1997.

In this database
you can trace from the current Marchesa of
Penafiel back to Fernao Perez Coronel. The first
Count of Penafiel, created 1798, was Manuel Jose
da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (1782-1859), a direct
male-line descendant of Fernao Perez Coronel
according to the database. The title then passed
through his daughter, the 1st Marchesa.

Other titles of
various branches of the de Sousa Countinho family
include Baron of Balsemao, Viscount of Balsemao,
Viscount of Maceio, Count of Barreiro, Count of
Linhares, Count of Obidos, Count of Palma, Count
of Redondo, Count of Sabugal, Count of Soure,
Count of Sousa Coutinho, Count of Vimioso, Count
of Barreiro, Marquis of Borba, Marquis of Maceio,
Marquis of Valenca, Marquis of Funchal.

Don Vitorio Maria
Francisco de Sousa Coutinho Teixeira de Andrade
Barbosa (1790-1857), 2nd Count of Linhares, was
the 2nd Prime Minister of Portugal, though he was
in office for only 3 weeks.

Note that the
title 'Countess of Penafiel' seems to have been
one of those 'adopted' by Maria Pia (1907-1995), apparently
(but this is disputed) natural daughter of King
Carlos of Portugal and pretender to the
Portuguese throne. I have no idea why she used
this title. See also here.

A Jew in armour -
this is the only picture that I have come across
of a Jew, or a Converso Jew, in armour.

The text reads 'Quadro
a oleo do 8 Correio-Mor Duarte de Sousa da Mata
Coutinho (1674/1696)', that is 'Oil
painting of the 8th Postmaster-General Duarte de
Sousa da Mata Coutinho (1674/1696)'. I
assume that this is Duarte de Sousa Coutinho da
Mata (b. 1661), see above, great-grandfather of
the 1st Count of Penafiel. I do not recognize the
arms but the first quartering shows the arms of
de Sousa de Arronches, that is Portugal (modern)
with a bar sinister quartered with de Sousa
('Armorial Lusitano', Lisbon, 2000, p. 510-511),
indicating a bastard line of the royal
house of Portugal. The arms of de Sousa de Arronches
appear (without the bordure, that is ancient, or
bar sinister) on the arms carved over the
entrance to the Palace of Penafiel, Lisbon, being
the 2nd and 3rd quarterings; the 1st quartering
is da Mata and the 4th is Coutinho, as
illustrated below. His mother was Violante de
Castro, through whom he also inherited the blood
of the royal house of Aragon, so he probably felt
he had the right to look grand. See here.

The arms over the
entrance to the Palace of Penafiel, Lisbon. 1st,
da Mata; 2nd and 3rd, de Sousa de Arronches
(Portugal quartered with de Sousa); 4th, Coutinho
- thus da Mata de Sousa Coutinho. The cross in
chief of the da Mata arms denotes membership of
the Knights of Christ (formerly the Knights
Templar). A unique coat of arms, being the arms
of a Jewish family, quartered with the arms of a
royal house (Portugal) and bearing the device of
the Knights Templar. The arms are surmounted by
the coronet of rank of a marquis, the Marquis of
Penafiel.

*In 1606, in
recognition of services rendered to the King, he
was granted a royal charter changing his name
from Coronel to 'da Mata', meaning, literally,
'of the bush'. This apparently refers to bushes
that grow on the hillsides around the site of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures (see the pictures
below), and which had been used for centuries to
provide firewood for the nearby Convent of
Odivelas (now a girls school called 'Instituto de
Odivelas' run by the Ministry of Defence); he was
therefore, it appears, taking his name from his
estate - the 'place of the bushes' (it was called
the 'Quinta da Mata') - in the normal feudal
manner.

He was granted
arms of 'or, three bushes vert ('matas de verde')
flowering of their colour ('floridas de sua
cor'). These arms of da Mata can be seen below
(painted on a ceiling in the Palace of
Correio-Mor) as the first quatering in the arms
of Manuel Jose da Mata de Sousa Coutinho, 1st
Count of Penafiel. The second and third
quarterings are the arms of Camara (the 1st
Count's mother was Catarina da Camara) and the
fourth quartering is the arms of Mendocas, Counts
of Vale de Reis and later Dukes
of Loulé (the 1st Count of Penafiel's
maternal grandmother was Isabel Maria de Mendoca
e Moura), daughter of the 4th Count of Vale de
Reis. The 1st Duke of Loulé (and 8th Count of
Vale de Reis) married Ana-de-Jesus-Maria de
Bragança, Infanta of Portugal, daughter of King
John VI of Portugal, and the current 6th duke is
believed by some to be senior claimant to the
throne of Portugal in right of this descent. This
explains why the arms of the Counts of Penafiel
are different from those of Coronel. In the male
line the 1st Count was a Coronel.

D. Constança
Maria da Conceição Berquó de Mendoça Rolim de
Moura Barreto (1889-1967), 4th Duchess of Loulé
in her own right and, according to some, rightful Queen of Portugal. The basis of this
assertion is, as I understand it, that the
descendants of Ana-de-Jesus-Maria de Bragança,
Infanta of Portugal, have remained Portuguese
citizens not debarred from the succession, while
all other branches have either (1) not remained
Portuguese citizens, whereby they have become
debarred from the succession, or (2) have been
specifically debarred from the succession by a
constitution of 1838 (which has not been repealed
but which was apparently over-ruled by an 1842
re-instatement of an 1826 constitution). It is a
complicated subject which is partially explained here, here and here (which shows the Loulé
connection to the royal family). Note that the
Dukes of Loulé have never claimed any right of
succession (though they are undoubtedly in the
line of succession) and the overwhelming majority
of people, including, it seems, the Portuguese
state, recognise the Duke of Bragança as
rightful heir. In any event, the Loulé branch of
the royal family seems to be the only branch
which has unquestionably not been debarred at any
time for either reason.

The arms of the
1st Count of Panafiel painted on the ceiling of
the Hall of Arms, Palace of Correio-Mor, as
described above. Quarterly, 1st, da Mata, 2nd and
3rd, da Camara, 4th, Mendoca.

**The de Castro
family, Counts of Monsanto, were
one of the oldest and noblest families in Spain
who were connected by blood to the royal family
of Aragon. Violante de Castro (above) was the
great-great-great-grand-daughter of Pedro de
Castro, 3rd Count of Monsanto (1460-1529) who was
the
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson
of James I, King of Aragon. Violante de Castro
carried this royal blood into the Coronel/da Mata
family so that about 150 years after the
expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 a Jewish
family married into the royal line of Aragon. The
Coutinho family, Counts of Marialva,
were descended from Denis, King of Portugal
(1269-1325),
via his illegitimate son, Alfonso Sanches
(1289-1329). The 5th Marquis of Marialva rebuilt
the Palace of Seteais, Sintra, now a luxury
hotel. Note that in Portugal, for reasons that I
am not entirely clear about (but presumably
because the ladies concerned were heraldic
heiresses), people often seemed to assume the
names of their mothers; thus the daughter of Lopo
de Sousa Coutinho and his wife, Joana de Castro,
was called Violante de Castro. Sometime children
of the same parents have different surnames.

***This would mean
his mother was 47 when he was born. Presumably
there is an error here somewhere.

****He was also
granted the feudal lordship of Penafiel, a town about 20 miles
east of Porto. He had a distinguished military
career and served in the Peninsular War.

Jose Antonio da
Mata de Sousa Coutinho (b 1718), 10th
Correio-Mor, see above, was a Knight of the Order
of Christ. The Knights of Christ were founded in
1317, Papal Bull 1319, and were direct successors
in Portugal to the Knights Templar (founded 1119,
suppressed 1312), whose property in that country
was transferred to them; in other words, the
Knights Templar simply changed their name. Only
Catholics of noble descent were admitted to the
Order. The order continues to exist today in
Portugal as a state order of merit. There is also
a Papal Order of Christ.

The Convent of the
Order of Christ, Tomar, Portugal. Built by the
Knights Templar in 1160, it became the
headquarters of the Order of Christ in 1357.

A seal of the
Knights Templar. It reads 'SIGILLUM MILITUM
XRISTI' or 'Seal of the Knights of
Christ'. The seals of several of the Grand
Masters of the Order of Christ in Portugal depict
the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, from which the Knights Templar took
their name.

A snapshot from
the film 'The Kingdom of Heaven' before the
battle of the Horns of Hattin (1187). The scene in that
film where 140 Knights Templar charge a Moslem
army of 7,000 (picture below) is based on fact;
the charge took place at The Wells of Cresson, near Nazareth, in 1187 -
three men survived ('The Knight and Chivalry',
R. Barber, p. 230). Funnily enough, one of the
knights who fought (and died) at Cresson was Roger des Moulins (French equivalent of
Milne), Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller,
whose arms were argent on a cross moline sable an
escallop or.

The arms borne by
the Coronel family in Portugal - azure,
five eagles displayed or in saltire, the middle
eagle crowned or. The crest is an eagle
displayed and crowned or (i.e. the same as the
middle eagle). These arms, together with
hereditary nobility ('e a seus filhos,
privilegio para que se possam chamar fidalgos, e
gozam das honras de fidalgos' - 'and to
his children, the privilege of being called
nobles, and of enjoying the honours of nobles*'),
were first granted by King Manuel I of Portugal
to Nicolao Coronel, Physician to the Royal
Family, apparently a nephew of Don Abraham Senior
(Fernao Perez Coronel), in 1499 (Arquivo Nacional
da Tore do Tombo, Liv 4 de Misticos, fls 165
verso e Chanceleria de D. Manuel,
Liv 16 fls 108 verso). Nicolao Coronel appears to have
accompanied Queen Maria, daughter of Ferdinand of
Aragon and Isabella of Castile, into Portugal on
the occasion of her marriage to Manuel I in 1497.

*This hereditary
nobility descended not just to the grantee's
children but to his remoter descendants, as
demonstrated by the following further grants of
the Coronel arms or charters of nobility:

Arms granted in 1600 by
Philip II (III of Spain) to Luiz Gomes
d'Elvas Coronel, even though the grantee
was not descended from Nicolao Coronel
(as far as I know) but from Fernao Perez
Coronel via his third son, Inigo Peres
Coronel.

Luiz Gomes d'Elvas Coronel
(b 1547) of Loures, Lisbon, was
recognised by Philip II (III of Spain) as
a noble by virtue of his descent
(great-grandson) from Fernao Perez
Coronel (charter dated 26 September
1607).

Arms granted to descendants
of Fernao Perez Coronel's eldest son,
Joao Peres Coronel, namely Manuel Soares
Coronel, of Crato, who received a charter
on 15 Nov 1605 from Philip III (IV of
Spain)* granting him the right to bear
the arms of Coronel as a
descendant of Fernao Perez Coronel
(See Jose de Sousa Machado, in Brasoes
Ineditos, Braga, 1906, p. 127).

Manuel's son, Andre Soares
de Saraiva Coronel of Lisbon was granted
a charter of nobility by King John IV of
Portugal on 3 Aug 1644. This charter
cites the earlier charter of 1499 granted
(according to the charter) by Manuel I to
his ancestors (See Arquivo Nacional da
Tore do Tombo - Chancellaria de D. Joao
IV - Liv XVIII, fls. 64 verso).

*This
must be incorrect. Philip III (IV of Spain) was
born in 1605 and succeeded in 1621. Presumably it
was Philip II, not Philip III.

On
the basis that five descendants of Fernao Perez
Coronel, as listed above, have been granted arms
and/or charters of nobility, apparently as
descendants of Fernao Perez Coronel, it appears
to be clear that the arms of Coronel and
hereditary nobility (as 'Fidalgos
de Cota d'Armas' -
literally 'Noblemen with a
coat of arms') have been
recognised in Portugal as being descendible to
the desendants of Fernao Perez Coronel, both in
the male and female lines.

Coronel crest.

Isaiah 46:11 -
'From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a
far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I
have said, that will I bring about; what I have
planned, that will I do.

In Spain the arms
of Coronel are, apparently, gules (red), five
eagles displayed argent (white) in saltire, the
middle eagle crowned or (gold), on a bordure
argent (white) seven fleur-de-lys azure (blue)
(source: http://heraldicahispana.com). I have not identified
whether these are the arms of an unrelated
non-Jewish family or arms granted to the Jewish
family in Spain; I assume it is the former.

'Lineage of
great antiquity and nobility, and their name was
first written as Cornel. Frequently, members of
this family passed over to Portugal, and this
since the beginning of the XIII cent. Later, in
the XVI cent., Antonio Coronel came to our
country, from Galicia. He belonged to the
Coronels of Segovia. He established himself in
the town Moncao, and his descendants remained in
Portugal.'

This entry is
somewhat misleading. There was an ancient Spanish
family called Coronel but Antonio Coronel came
from a family of Sephardic Jews called Senior,
who changed their name to Coronel in 1492. Some
members of the family, such as Nicolao Coronel,
moved to Portugal soon afterwards, others,
including Antonio Coronel of Moncao, moved to
Portugal some generations later. The Senior
family adopted an existing Spanish name
apparently (according to Beinart p. 461)
associated with the Spanish Guzman family (See 'Armorial
Lusitano', Lisbon, 2000, p. 174-6).

The arms
of the Senior/Coronel/Texeira(Teixeira)/de Mattos
family in Holland and Germany.

The Lion and the
Tree.

The arms of the
Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or
Teixeira)-de Mattos family as inscribed on the
gravestone of Ester Gomes de Mesquita, wife of
Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), in the
Ouderkerk aan den Amstel cemetery.

According to the
sources cited these are as follows: Quarterly,
1st and 4th, gules (red) a lion rampant or
(gold), 2nd and 3rd, gules (red) a tree vert
(green) upon a terrace and for the crest a lion
rampant issuant out of a crown or (gold)
(Source: Rietstap, 'Armorial Général,
Precedé d'un Dictionnaire des Termes du Blason',
2nd ed., 2 vols. Gouda, 1887, Supplement, p.
1303; Castro, D. Henriques de, 'Keur van
Grafsteenen op de Nederl. Portug. Ysrael.
Begraafplaats te Ouderkerk aan den Amstel.'
Part i., Leyden, 1883, p. 103). These arms were
apparently born by Don Manuel Texeira, alias
Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), resident
minister from the Court of Sweden to the City of
Hamburg (1661-1687/9), who apparently left Lisbon
with his father (d. 1666) in 1643. He was a great
favourite of Queen Christina of Sweden who in
1661 spent a year living in his house in Hamburg.
These arms were registered in the Armorial
General de France (register 2, folio 352)
following certification by Jean Geoffrey Petrik,
Heraldist and Genealogist of Paris, on 20
November 1926. Don Manuel married, firstly, Ribka
de Mattos, and, secondly, Ester Gomes de
Mesquita. In 'Armorial Lusitano' (p. 351) the
arms of de Matos are gules (red) a fir tree
vert (green) rooted argent ('arrancado de prata')
supported by two lions rampant combatant (two
lions rampant facing eachother) or, armed and
langued azure (blue), so perhaps these arms
are actually just a variation on those of de
Matos. The Portuguese de Matos family (I don't
know whether they were actually related to the
Jewish family of that name) were descended from
the Kings of Leon. In the certified document
dated 20 November 1926 it is stated that the arms
of Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or
Teixeira)-de Mattos derived from a marriage
alliance between the Senior and Texeira de Mattos
families ('par la suite d'un marriage entre les
familles SENIOR et TEXEIRA DE MATTOS'), implying
that the 1st and 4th quarters were the Senior
arms and the 2nd and 3rd quarters were the
Texeira de Mattos arms, which may be derived from
the de Matos arms described.

The reference in
the Jewish Encyclopedia to the effect that the
arms of Sampayo (azure a cross patonce or)
were included in the Spanish roll of arms seems
to be an erroneous reference to the arms of the
Spanish family of Teixeira (azure a cross
potent voided of the field or), which arms
seem also to have been borne by the
Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or
Teixeira)-de Mattos family (Castro, D. Henriques
de, 'Keur van Grafsteenen op de Nederl.
Portug. Ysrael. Begraafplaats te Ouderkerk aan
den Amstel'. Part i., Leyden, 1883, p. 103).

At the moment the
only proper grant of arms would seem to be that
of 1643 of: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, or an
eagle displayed purple; 2nd and 3rd, checky or
and sable (sixteen fields); bordure gules,
charged with eight "S's" argent and for
the crest five ostrich-plumes, sable, or, gules,
argent, sable. We do not have evidence at
the moment of an actual grant of the three others
(quarterly of the lion and the tree as
illustrated, de Matos or Teixeira) to the
Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or
Teixeira)-de Mattos family. Note also that the
arms granted in 1643 to Diego Teixeira Sampayo
seem to be the arms of a distinguished Portuguese
family of Sampayo, the head of which are the Counts
and Marquises of Sao Paio and which held/hold
numerous other titles, including 3 counties, 10
viscountcies and 3 baronies (the arms of the
Marchesa de Sao Payo in 'Anuaria da Nobreza
de Portugal', 1985, p. 154 are identical to
those granted to Diego Teixeira Sampayo in 1643).
If such a grant was actually made it would
indicate that Diego Teixeira Sampayo was a scion
of this family, which would indicate that they
were Jewish in origin, possibly with an original
Jewish name of Senior (this would explain why the
family adopted the Senior name on arriving in
Hamburg). Note that 'Armorial Lusitano'
(p. 488) says that the origins of the family are
unclear*. See also here.

Arms of Sampayo.

*Note that
according to the Portuguese historian, Luis de
Bivar Pimentel Guerra, Branca de Andrade, the
first wife of Diego Texeira de Sampayo, father of
Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), see above,
was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Don
Abraham Senior (see here). He refers to his own article 'Os
Sampaios e Veigas d'Evora, nobreza sefardine'
('The Sampaios and Veigas d'Evora, Sephardic
nobility') published in 'Armas e Trofeus',
so it appears that the Sampayo family are Jewish
in origin.

The Senior-Texeira
arms embroidered on what is I think a wedding
shawl. These arms have a different crest which I
think is the top of a tree (it looks like a palm)
issuing from a crown.

The Palace
of Correio-Mor, Loures, near Lisbon, Portugal

The 140-room
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, near Lisbon,
Portugal, former seat of the Senior/Coronel/da
Mata de Sousa Coutinho family, Counts and
Marquises of Penafiel (the building shown is 18th
century). The building now appears to be run by
Sociedade Imobiliaria e Turistica, Rua Rodrigo da
Fonseca, 53-2º (Tel: 386 3413) as a venue for
functions, conferences, as a film location* and
so on. It is difficult to get an idea of the
scale of the building but the central pediment is
about 60 feet high. The width of the palace shown
(from the left to the right of the picture) is
about 235 feet. Click on the picture for a larger
image.

A genuine
fairy-tale palace in pink and white. Note that
the pink and white colour scheme is well-known in
Portugal and is also to be found at the Palácio de Belém ("Bethlehem
Palace"), the official residence of the
President of Portugal, which is known as 'The
Pink Palace'.

Following
financial reverses the palace was sold to Luis
António Louza in 1874, whose family owned it
until 1996 when it was sold to Casa Agrícola da
Quinta da Matta, Lda, who presumably sold it to
the current owners.

The family owned
the property from the last years of the 16th
century (late 1500s) until 1874, that is about
275 years. There are references to buildings on
the site from 1557.

'Correio-Mor'
translates as 'Postmaster-General'. 'Correio'
means 'post office' and 'mor' means 'big', so
'correio-mor' literally means 'big post office' -
so 'the palace of the big post office' (but more
reasonably 'the palace of the
postmaster-general'). The family, who had already
made a fortune in the spice trade (particularly
pepper), trading with the Atlantic islands, India
and the East, made an even larger fortune by
purchasing from the King in 1606 a monopoly on
the postal service in a manner rather similar
to the Von Thurn & Taxis
family,
who became Princes of the Holy Roman Empire as a
result of the vast fortune they made by this
means. The family held this monpoly until 1797.

Given that the
family were rich merchants trading with both the
Azores and the East Indies at the relevant time,
it is possible that they were financial backers
(there would usually have been a number of
backers in order to spread the risk) of the
Portuguese ship Las Cinque Chagas, which was sunk
by English privateers off the Azores on 13th June
1594, while carrying a huge cargo of gold,
rubies, diamonds and pearls from the East Indies.
This cargo is estimated to be worth over one
billion US dollars in today's terms, making it
one of the richest treasure shipwrecks in the
world. In any event, the family would almost
certainly have been involved in similar voyages
trading for gold and jewels, if not that
particular voyage. Anyway, who cares! I am laying
my claim to half the treasure...

An old map of the
Azores. The skull and crossbones marks the area
of the wreck, 18 miles south of the channel
between Pico and Fayal.

A satellite image
which shows the contours of the sea floor. There
is a billion dollars worth of gold and jewels
somewhere in that picture. Cripes!

A reception at the
Palace of Correio-Mor, which was held for Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on 17 March 2002.

The Palace of
Correio-Mor. Plan of the principal state rooms on
the second floor. The room at the bottom of the
plan is the 'Sala do Brasao' or 'Hall of Arms'
('Brasao' = 'Coat of Arms'); the alcove at the
bottom leads through French windows onto a bridge
(not shown) to formal gardens, as pictured below.
The main staircase comes up on both sides of the
Hall of Arms. The main state rooms are, from left
to right, the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Music,
the Central Hall (adjoining the Hall of Arms),
the Hall of Trophies and the Hall of the Stations
(Sala das Estações). The central courtyard is
about 35m (115ft) square. On this basis, the
Central Hall would be about 12.65m (42ft) by 7.5m
(24ft). The room at the top right of the plan
(room no. 140) is called the Hall of the Chase
(i.e. Hunt). The bit jutting out on the right of
the plan is the chapel and there is a photo of
the chapel entrance below; you can just make out
the spiral staircase of the spire. The ground
level on the right of the plan is level with the
second storey, meaning that you can walk straight
out of the second floor rooms in that wing into
the garden. The north wing on the left of the
picture contained the private apartments of the
Marquises of Penafiel.

The Palace of
Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Up behind the
palace you can see the cutting where a motorway
passes from left to right. See pictures below.

The Palace of
Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. I am guessing that
the bush in the foreground is of the same type as
those from which the family took the name 'da
Mata' - 'of the bush' - in 1606 and which appears
on the da Mata arms illustrated above.

The Palace of
Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The main courtyard
of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.
Behind where the lady on the right is walking
(the one in the distance) is the main kitchen
(see photo below). You can see the kitchen
chimney just to the right of the tree in the
background as well as the tip of the chapel
spire. Click on the image for a bigger
version.

These photographs
show the main state rooms in order, starting with
the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame,
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, taken
roughly from the doorway leading to the Hall of
Music. This is the only main room with a
fireplace.

The Hall of Music,
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking
through to the Central Hall, taken roughly from
the doorway leading to the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Music,
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Central Hall,
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking
through to the Hall of Arms on the left and the
Hall of Music on the right, with the Hall of Fame
beyond.

The Central Hall
(detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal.

The Central Hall
(detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal, looking through to the Hall of Arms.
You can see the huge main lantern of the Hall of
Arms, about as tall as a person.

The Central Hall
(detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal.

The Central Hall
(detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal. This series of tiles, dating from the
mid 18th century, depicts the life of a ship; the
scene above is presumably the last in the series,
where the hulk of the ship is left rotting on a
beach. This subject matter probably reflected the
family's trading connections as spice merchants.
Another series of tiles in this room depicts the
life of man.

The Hall of
Trophies, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal, looking down one of the arms of the
main staircase. Going through the doorway and
then turning right takes you into the Hall of
Arms. The staircase turns 90 degrees to the right
at the further ceiling lantern.

The Hall of the
Stations, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal, looking at one of the doors leading
into the Hall of Trophies.

The Chapel, Palace
of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Hall of the
Chase, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.
Picture taken from in front of a french window
leading directly into the garden. The window
shown overlooks the main courtyard of the palace.

The Hall of the
Chase (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal.

The Hall of the
Chase (tiling detail), Palace of Correio-Mor,
Loures, Portugal.

Interior detail of
the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

Interior detail of
the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The main staircase
of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.
This photo gives some idea of the construction of
the building; on the right is a marble block
taller than a person. The staircase shown is
directly beneath the Hall of Arms. Halfway up the
stairs is a drinking fountain.

Interior of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. The
statue on the main staircase - a nymph of some
sort I guess.

Kitchen of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. You can
just see the edge of the basins (next picture) in
the alcove on the right and a baking oven on the
left. There is a modern kitchen on the second
floor, next to the Hall of the Chase on the
garden side (away from the courtyard).

Kitchen (tiling
detail) of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures,
Portugal

The Palace of
Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Possibly the
poshest kitchen sink in the world.

Garden of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, taken
roughly from the french window leading from the
Hall of the Chase into the garden.

Exterior of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. This is
the chapel entrance; you can see the spire in the
background.

Exterior of the
Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. The door
leads into the Hall of the Chase (see above).

A map of the
Lisbon area. The red pointer indicates the
position of the palace.

An aerial photo of
the palace (the white patch surrounded by woods
in the middle of the picture). Still an island of
green amidst the motorways, housing estates,
tower blocks, shopping malls and light industrial
units. The town of Loures is on the right of the
picture. The palace is less than 4 miles NW of
Lisbon airport.

A somewhat
enlarged view. You can see blocks of flats at the
top right hand corner of the picture.

A further enlarged
view, giving an idea of the layout of the
gardens, which are rather overgrown.

Apelacao, near
Loures, from the air, approx. 2.5 miles ESE of
the palace. It all looks remarkably new and
clean. The pace of development must have been
fantastic. Loures was a hilly and wooded area
close to but outside the city of Lisbon. As with
Sintra, a similarly hilly and wooded area, but
closer to the sea, Loures provided a rural
location where the aristocracy could build villas
to retreat to in the heat of the summer, serving
a similar function to the villas built outside
Venice or Florence. Today, Loures has not escaped
development, as you can see. Sintra appears to
have been luckier.

A plan of the
Palace of Correio-Mor below a plan of
Vaux-le-Vicomte. The scale shown at the bottom of
Vaux-le-Vicomte is 110ft and the courtyard of the
Palace is 115ft (35.2m), so the relative scale of
the two buildings looks about right. The facade
of Vaux-le-Vicomte is about 233ft long on this
basis and that of the Palace about 235ft, the
building being some 260ft at its widest point.
This is comparing the state rooms on the second
floor of the Palace with the piano nobile (first
floor), that is state rooms, of Vaux-le-Vicomte.
At the bottom is a plan of the ground floor of a
local 'big house' called Milne Graden,
Coldstream, Berwickshire which is about 113 feet
wide; this gives some idea of the difference
between a house and a palace. Going further down
the scale, my entire cottage would easily fit
into one of the rooms of the palace - with room
to spare.

Technically, at
least in the UK, the word palace means 'seat of
royal or ecclesiastical authority' and only the
official residences of the monarch, archbishops
and bishops (e.g. Lambeth Palace) should be
called palaces, so the word 'palace' has nothing
at all to do with the size of a building. In
Scotland, the caput of a regality is also
technically a palace, since it was a seat of
regalian authority (Nisbet, 'System of
Heraldry', Vol. II, Part IV, p. 46), which
means that Edrington House, as the caput of the
Regality of Nether Mordington (erected 1636),
where my family lived between 1998 and 2003, is a
palace. I think Edrington House might qualify as
the smallest palace in the UK.

The Palace of
Penafiel, Lisbon. This is now the Ministry of
Public Works (Ministério das Obras Públicas,
Transportes e Comunicações
Palácio Penafiel, Rua de S. Mamede ao Caldas, 21
1100-533 Lisboa). The palace was acquired by the
state in 1919.

The ballroom of
the Palace of Penafiel, now used as a meeting
room.

An old photograph
of the Palace of Penafiel.

Don Abraham
Senior's house, Segovia, Spain - above the front
door. This is now the Jewish Quarter Education
Centre
(Centro Didáctico de la Judería), which is open
to the public.

The front door.

The courtyard.

The name of the
street.

View of Segovia.

The castle of
Segovia, considered to be the most beautiful in
Spain. Don Abraham Senior effectively captured
this castle single-handedly when he negotiated
the surrender the castle to Ferdinand and
Isabella (I assume that this was during the civil
war with Joan, Princess of Castile). See 'The
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain', p. 416.

'The Egyptian,
the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the
planet with sound and splendor, then faded to
dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the
Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they
are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held
their torch high for a time, but it burned out,
and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.
The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now
what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no
infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no
slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert
and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but
the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.
What is the secret of his immortality?' -
Mark Twain

'The sweetest face I
ever saw. Masses of golden hair, bright as a young
child's, shaded the delicate, transparent features.'

*From an early
daguerreotype when Janie was about 20 or younger (the
first daguerreotype was in 1839).

*Described
by Florence Nightingale as 'a noble army of one' on
account of her work for pauper children, she was
undoubtedly one of the great humanitarian women of the
19th century and was a co-founder of the British Red
Cross, as well as the founder of the Metropolitan Association for Befriending
Young Servants. She was the first woman civil servant in
Whitehall. She had a wide circle of friends amongst her
most eminent contemporaries, including Florence
Nightingale, George Eliot, Tennyson, George Frederick
Watts, Julia Margaret Cameron, Octavia Hill and many
others. She was painted by both Watts and Millais (she appears as the
mother figure in 'The Rescue' by Millais) and photographed by Cameron.

(Note: She was listed as a
member of the Ladies Committee in the Society's report of
1870-71 - the British Red Cross was founded in 1870 - and
was a founder of the Ladies' Working Committee for
London, that is the people who actually did the work, as
opposed to just lending their names.)

*Her
brothers were:-

George
Hughes (1821-1872) who married Anne
Salusbury Steward (adopted by her mother's
cousin, Elizabeth Mary, Lady Salusbury of Offley
Place, Great Offley, Herts). They had
four children: Herbert (1853-1926), last Squire
of Offley, who married and had two sons - Guy (b
1882) and Jack; Edward (b 1855), who died young;
Walter ('Jack') (b 1857/8), who married Olive
Boyer and had a daughter, Olivette; Reginald (b
1860/1), who married Marian Graham and had 5
children - Diana, Edward, Nancy, Graham and
Margaret.

Thomas
Hughes (1822-1896) Co-founder of the Christian
Socialist movement and an influential figure in
the early Trade Union Movement. Barrister,
Queen's Counsel, Member of Parliament, County
Court Judge and author of 'Tom Brown's
Schooldays' (1856). In 1880 he established,
largely with his own money, a 75,000 acre Utopian
settlement (now 'Historic
Rugby') in Rugby, Tenessee which exists to
this day. In 1847 he married Frances ('Fanny')
Ford (1826-1901), a school-friend of Jeanie's,
daughter of James Ford, son of Sir Richard Ford
(1758-1806), and Jane Frances Nagle. Sir Richard
Ford had been the lover of Dorothea Bland
(1761-1816), known as 'Mrs. Jordan', later
mistress of William, Duke of Clarence, before he
became King William IV and by whom she had 10
children - see above.

John Hughes (d 1895)
who married Elizabeth Howard Courtenay, daughter
of Thomas Courtenay, brother of William Courtenay
(1777-1859), 10th Earl of Devon. No issue.

Walter
Scott Hughes (1826-1846). He joined the Army,
became a Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, and
died of malaria on 25th April 1846 in the Berbice
region of British Guyana. No issue.

William
Hastings Hughes (1833-1909) who married
(1) Emily Clark (1838-1864) and (2) Sarah Forbes
(1853-1917), daughter of the great American
railway magnate, John Murray Forbes of Boston
(1813-1898). He has numerous descendants in the
US - see above.

Henry
Hughes (1836-1861). He died in Morocco
while recuperating from the effects of a
childhood accident. No issue.

Arthur
Hughes (1840-1867). He joined the Army and
died of heatstroke in India. No issue.

*I think
the drawings of the Hughes brothers were done by Jane
(above).

*Emily
Clark was the daughter of George Clark (1809-1874),
Archdeacon of St. David's, by his wife, Anna Eliza
Frances Senior (b.1808), daughter of John Raven Senior
(1763-1824) by his wife, Mary Duke (d. 1822). Emily Clark
was therefore the niece of Nassau William Senior (left)
and the descendants of William Hastings Hughes and Emily
Clark now living in the US are descendants of both the Seniors and the
Dukes. Emily Clark had two sisters, Mary Clark
(b. 1839) and Anita Clark (b. 1843?), and one brother,
Gerard Collingwood Clark (b. 1845).

The view of London from
Wandsworth Hill across the Thames in the early 19th
century. This would have been the approximate view from
Elm House, Lavender Hill, Battersea, where Jeanie lived
before moving to Cheyne Walk.

Offley Place, Great
Offley, Hertfordshire.

98 Cheyne Walk, London -
where Jeanie died in 1877 and where my grandfather,
Oliver Nassau Senior, was born. This house is now owned
by the National Trust.

A view of 98 Cheyne Walk
from the river (Thames) by Walter Greaves.

Cheyne Walk, Chelsea,
about 1811 by John Varley (1778-1842).

*On her friendship with
Tennyson, Hallam Tennyson, Lord Tennyson's son, wrote in
his 'Alfred Lord Tennyson - A Memoir by His Son' (p.
887): 'Amongst those who were most frequently to be met
here [Freshwater, Isle of Wight] were Mrs. Hughes, her
children and grandchildren. Mrs. Nassau Senior, so well
known for her philanthropic labours, long shared her
mother's Freshwater home; but after her death, this
noble-hearted mother undertook the long voyage to
Tennessee, in order to take her granddaughter out to her
father, who was in charge of the colony of Rugby, founded
by his brother, Mr. Tom Hughes. Greatly to the regret of
Tennyson and all her Freshwater friends, she has never
returned to the Isle of Wight, but continues to reside in
the colony, respected and loved by all as their common
mother.'

*On Jeanie Senior's death, Watts wrote a letter, in what can
only be described as a fit of anger, to his particularly
sexist patron, Charles Rickards (1812-1886); 'I have lost
a friend who could never be replaced even if I had a long
life before me, one in whom I had unbounded confidence,
never shaken in the course of friendship very rare during
26 years, Mrs. Nassau Senior, whom I dare say you
remember talking about with me, who was called by a
friend of yours "That Woman". I think when you
read the biography of "That Woman", for it is
one that will be written, that very few canonized saints
so well deserved glorification, for all that makes human
nature admirable, lovable, & estimable, she had very
few equals indeed, & I am certain no superior, it is
not too much to say that children yet unborn will have
cause to rue this comparative early death.'

*He
married, firstly, Elizabeth Cook, who died in 1819, aged
22. Their daughter, Henrietta Maria, died in the same
year, aged 6 months. Memorial in St. Mary's, Uffington.

See Burke's 'Genealogical
and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great
Britain and Ireland 1847 (Vol. I, p.
612), under
'Hughes of Donnington Priory', for more information on
the Hughes family.

Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berks. Home of the
Hughes family from 1833 until 1852, in which year the
family moved to 7 The Boltons, London. Donnington was
sold to Henry Howard (later Fitzalan-Howard), who became
14th Duke of Norfolk in 1856.

A typical
house in The Boltons, London.

'Sketch of
Mr. John Hughes house at Uffington in Berkshire' from the
Wiltshire Gazette and Herald (14 Sep 1978). This is
presumably the house where Thomas Hughes, author of 'Tom
Brown's Schooldays, was born.

*Arms of
Hughes of Donnington Priory (from Burke's General
Armory):

Quarterly,
1st and 4th, sable a fess cotised between three lions'
heads erased argent; 2nd, azure three arrows points
downwards or, on a chief of the second three Moors' heads
couped sidefaced sable; 3rd, argent, a chevron ermine
between three unicorns' heads capped sable.

The motto 'Y Gwir Yn Erbyn
Y Byd' ('The truth against the world') carved on a
fireplace at the Hughes' one-time family home at
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire. This motto was
apparently the war-cry of Boudica, Queen of the Iceni (d.
60/61). According to various (apparently now discounted)
legends Boudica is buried under a cairn called the Hill
of Arrows on the summit of Gop Hill, Trelawnyd, seat of
the lordship held by Madoc Dhu, from whom the Hughes
family appear to be decended, in the early 14th century.
This may account for the use of the motto. See below for
further information on Gop Hill and Madoc Dhu.

Statue of Boudica in
London.

Victorian humour - 'A new
flight of gulls in a windy day off Portland' by John
Hughes.

See Burke's 'Genealogical
and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great
Britain and Ireland 1847 (Vol. II, p.
1662 and p.1663), under 'Wilkinson of Harperley
Park', for more information on the Wilkinson family.

*Stokesley
Castle (or Manor House), Stokesley, Yorkshire in 1718. As
it used to be before major alterations in the 19th
century. The Wilkinson family owned this house and the
estate from 1779 to 1806. The manor house is at the east
end of the High Street in Stokesley. I believe that the
building is now used as a community centre and library.

Map of
Stokelsey in the late 19th century. The location of the
manor house is highlighted.

*She
apparently told her children that they were descended
from the Welsh princes 'on both sides'. This probably
refers to the fact that both her husband's grandparents
were descended from the Welsh princes (see below).

Rev. Thomas
Hughes (1756-1833) of Amen Corner, St.
Paul's, London and Uffington, Berkshire

Canon of
St. Paul's and Vicar of Uffington, Berkshire.

*He was
appointed tutor to the younger children of George III,
namely the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex and Cambridge, in
1777, Clerk of the Closet to George III and IV, Perpetual
Curate of Putney (1788-1803), Prebendary of Westminster
Abbey (1793-1807), Rector of Peasemore, Bucks
(1801-1807), Chaplain to the Duke of Cumberland (1802),
Rector of Turweston, Bucks (1802-1804), Prebendary of St.
Paul's Cathedral (1807-1833), Residentiary Canon of St.
Paul's (1807-1833), Vicar of Chiswick (1808-1809), Rector
of St. Mary's, Cilcain, Flints (1809-1826) and Vicar of
Uffington, Berks (1816-1833).

*She wrote
his biography, Letters and Recollections of Sir Walter
Scott.

*Rev.
George Watts, Vicar of Uffington (d. 1810) was the son of
Rev. George Watts (d. 1772), Chaplain to George II, son
of Rev. Henry Watts, Vicar of Uffington. See their
memorials in St. Mary's Church, Uffington.)

Headmaster
of Ruthin
School (Denbigh, North Wales), Rector of
Llanfwrog and Llansilyn. He married, secondly,
Margaret Salusbury (or possibly Salesbury),
cousin of his first wife, who died in April 1799,
aged 81.

*He was the son of Capt. Mwyndeg Hughes, apparently
a merchant mariner of Liverpool, and Elizabeth
Wood (sister and co-heir of Thomas Wood of
Hillingdon of the Daily Advertiser), who married
7th April 1707 in St. Michael's Church, Chester.
They had three children, Elizabeth
(baptised 1709), Thomas (baptised 1710) and Mundick
(baptised 1712). Mwyndeg Hughes died in 1712. SeeChester Marriage Bonds 1707-11 (Vol.
85, Record Society of
Lancashire and Cheshire) and the International
Genealogical Index for Cheshire (Batch Number:
8920131, Sheet: 34, Source Call No.: 1553478,
where Mwyndeg is recorded as 'Marmaduke'). I know
nothing of the descendants of Elizabeth and
Mundick (the younger), except that Elizabeth
apparently died in 1786.

*Mwyndeg Hughes
('Mwyndeg' means 'gentle and fair, tender,
genial, affable') of Liverpool was, according to
a family tree in my possession, the son of a Mr.
Hughes of 'Gelle Fawlor' near Ysceifiog in
Flintshire. Gelle Fawlor is actually
'Gelli-ffowler' on old maps. It is half a mile south of Brynford
on the B5121 on the left, just next to some
pylons.
This family were, apparently, of the same branch
as the Hughes of Pant Gwyn, Ysceifiog, 'whom the
Shrewsbury records make out descended from Edwin
of Tegeingl, chieftain (I think) of the 11th [in
fact 12th] Welsh tribe' (see below). Edwin, who
was sometimes referred to as 'King of Tegeingl',
died in 1073 and was an ancestor of both Llewelyn
the Great and the Tudor dynasty. Thus the Hughes
family, if this is correct, were descended from
the Welsh princes and had a common descent with
the English royal house independently of their
connection with the Salusbury family. This may be
what Margaret Wilkinson (above) was referring to
when she told her children that they were
descended from the Welsh princes 'on both sides'.

*According to
local historian, Hazel Formby of Tan-y-Llan,
Ysceifiog was noted for its white witches. She
also recounts that in a cave near Pant Gwyn King
Arthur is supposed to lie asleep, awaiting the
call of the Welsh people.

*On the same
family tree Thomas Hughes (1713-1776) is
identified as having four children, namely 'R.
H', 'T. H', 'A. F' and 'E. N'.

'R. H' stands for 'Robert
Hughes', HEICS, Rector of Gwyddelwern
(1801-09), Llantysilio (Llangollen)
(1838-43), Gwaunysgor (1843-46) and
Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain (from 1846). He
married a Miss Welsh and had issue 2
sons, Robert and Valentine who obsp, and
a daughter, Frances (Fanny), who married
her cousin, Archdeacon Newcome (see
below)

'T. H' stands for 'Thomas
Hughes' (1756-1833) above.

'E. N' stands for 'Elizabeth
Newcome', who married Rev. Henry Newcome,
Warden of Ruthin, and died in 1783,
having had issue Richard
Newcome, Archdeacon of Merioneth (see
above), Elizabeth, Maria and Thomas,
Rector of Shenley, Herts.

'A. F' stands for 'Anne
Friar' (or Fryer). She married a 'W.
Friar [or Fryer], a rich Welsh squire'
and she died at Wrexham on 14 Mar 1817
without issue. Burke's 'Genealogical and
Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry
of Great Britain and Ireland 1847 (Vol.
II, p. 612) says that he was called John
Fryer of Taplow Lodge, Bucks - now demolished
and replaced with a development called
Orkney Court (or Lodge), Cliveden Rd,
Taplow SL6 OJB). John Fryer was described
by the famous Nimrod, whose mother was a
friend of Anne Hughes, as 'a prince of a
man in all his thoughts and actions'
(Fraser's Magazine 1842, Vol. XXVI, p.
161).

Taplow Lodge,
Bucks.

*Margaret
Salesbury (should be Salusbury I think), daughter
of William Salesbury of Birch, Shropshire, Rev.
Thomas Hughes's second wife and a cousin of his
first wife, died in 24th April 1799, aged 81. See
memorial in Llanfwrog Church.

*Descent
of the Hughes of Pant Gwyn according to family
records (see link below)

(1) As far as I
can make out from family records (see link below)
Thomas of Pant Gwyn, son of Mwyndeg
(above), married Janet, daughter of Gruffyd ap
Dafydd ap Ithel Fychan. He had issue Hugh
ap Thomas who married Agnes, daughter of Thomas
ap Edward, sister of Morgan ap Thomas of Golden
Grove (1 mile N of Trelawnyd), descended from
Ednyfed Fychan - this marriage, and the descent
from Mwyndeg to Thomas to Hugh, is confirmed by
Burke's 'History of the Commoners of Great
Britain and Ireland', 1835, Vol. II, p. 163 under
'Morgan of Golden Grove'. He had issue Edward, of
Ysceifiog, who was of the first generation of
this family to adopt the surname of Hughes, and
who appears to have been the father or
grandfather of Mr. Hughes of 'Gelle Fawlor',
father of Mwyndeg Hughes of Liverpool, as
indicated in these notes on the origin of the
Hughes family. The line Hugh ap Thomas ap Mwyndeg
is the one given in Burke's 'Genealogical and
Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great
Britain and Ireland 1847 (Vol. I, p. 612), under 'Hughes of Donnington
Priory'. As far as I can see at the moment,
Edward Hughes would have lived in the early to
mid 1600s, so he could have been the father or
grandfather of Mr. Hughes of 'Gelle Fowler',
father of Mwyndeg Hughes of Liverpool, who was
probably born in the mid-1600s.

(2) The
pedigree (from Bel backwards at least) is
confirmed by a memorial to Bell Lloyd, second of
that name, in the Church of St. Michael and All
Angels, Trelawnyd, nr. Prestatyn, which reads:
'DYMA LLE MAY YN GORFETH BELL LLOYD AP EDWARD AP
BELL AP DD AP DD [AP] KENDRICK AP EVAN AP
GRIFFETH AP MADOCK DDV A FV FAROW Y 8 DYDD OF YES
MAI ANNO DO 1589' Arms: Paly of six, argent and
sable (these are the arms of Madoc Dhu, as
illustrated below - Arch. Camb. 1875: 234). This
is the family of Lloyd of Henfryn, which is about
1km W of Trelawnyd. Note that there were two
other families (at least) holding land in the
immediate area who were descended from Madoc Dhu,
Hughes (originally named Pennant it seems) of
Terfyn and Wynn of Copa'r Leni. See also Burke's
'Landed Gentry', 1952, under Griffith of Garn and
Powell of Nant-Eos.

Map of Trelawnyd
showing Henfryn Hall and the cairn at the summit
of Gop Hill called the 'Hill of Arrows',
legendary (but it appears, unlikely) burial site
of Boudica.

(3) His daughter
Hwyfa ('Gwenhwyfer') married Gwilym ap Gruffydd
of Penrhyn (d.c. 1370) of the Griffiths of
Penrhyn.

(5)Tegeingl
corresponds to the major part of modern
Flintshire, being the commotes of Rhuddlan,
Coleshill and Prestatyn.

(6) Lord of Copa'r
Goleuni or Copa'r Leni - that is 'Lord of the
Hill of Light'. This is just W of Trelawnyd and
is now called Gop Hill. This land was long owned
by his descendants - the family of Wynn of Copa'r
Leni. See their monuments in the Church of St.
Michael and All Angels, Trelawnyd. Copa'r Goleuni
means 'the light top' or 'the hill of light' and
was apparently the site of a Roman signal station
used to relay signals between the now submerged
Roman camp of Arx Decantorum at Conwy and
garrisons at Chester and elsewhere.

Gop Hill from
Golden Grove.

The arms of Madoc
Dhu ('dhu' means 'the black'), Lord of Copa'r
Goleuni; thus 'Madoc the Black, Lord of the Hill
of Light' - a poetic name. Paly of six, argent
and sable.

The arms of Edwin
of Tegeingl. Argent, a cross flory engrailed
sable between four Cornish crows (i.e. choughs)
proper.

*Her memorial in
St. Peter's Church, Ruthin says 'Elizabeth, daughter of
Norfolk Salusbury Esq., of the family of Bachegraig and
wife of Thomas Hughes, A.M., 1735, Master of the Free
School in this town 1756.'

*She had two brothers as
follows:

(1) Robert Salusbury (d
1776) of Cotton Hall, Denbigh, who m Gwendolen Davis (d
1790) and had five children:

(2) Thelwall Salusbury (d
1804), Vicar of Offley 1755-75, who married Ann, natural
daughter of James Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, (who,
according to family notes, had an only child, 'Mrs.
Telford', who left issue).

Note: Those who did or
might have had issue that are not listed are in italics.
Male issue are in bold.

|

Norfolk
Salusbury of Plas-y-Ward, Denbigh (d. 1736)

*Ancestor of the
Salusburys of Cotton Hall, Denbigh. His grandson, Sir
Robert Salusbury of Cotton Hall (d. 1817), was created a
baronet in 1795. Sir Robert's son, Sir Thomas-Robert
(1783-1835) married his cousin, Elizabeth Mary, daughter
of Rev. Lynch Burroughs of Offley Place, Great Offley,
Herts. They had no issue. Lady Salusbury adopted Anne
Salusbury Steward, who married George Hughes (1821-1872)
(see above).

Plas-y-Ward,
Denbigh.

He had an
elder brother, Thomas Salusbury of Bachecraig (d 1714),
who married his first cousin, Lucy Salusbury. They had
issue:

(1) John
Salusbury of Bachecraig (1710-1762), Governor of Nova
Scotia, who m Hester Maria Cotton (d 1773) (daughter of
Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd Bart., of Combermere and Lleweni),
whose daughter and heir was Hester Lynch
Salusbury (1741-1821), who married (1) Henry Thrale*
(d 1781), by whom she had 12 children**, and (2) Gabriel
Mario Piozzi (d 1809) by whom she had no issue. She left
Bachecraig to her adopted son and nephew, Sir John
Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury (formerly Piozzi) of Brynbella
(1793-1858). Her last living descendant was her
grand-daughter, Georgina Keith (b 1809), daughter of
Hester Maria Thrale (1764-1857) and Admiral George Keith
(1746-1823), who died without issue in 1892.

*He was a
wealthy brewer who had the misfortune to have been born
in a dog kennel on his father-in-law's (John Salusbury)
estate. John Salusbury apparently died of a seizure on
being told of the intended marriage of his daughter.

*Out of
spite she made her husband leave Offley away from the
heir, Hester Thrale, her husband's niece (see above), to
a cousin, Sir Robert Salusbury (d 1817), who only lived
at Offley for 2 years as a result of 'overmuch
entertaining'. Offley then passed to Sir Robert's younger
brother, Lynch Salusbury (see above), who had already
inherited the Wellbury estate and changed his name to
Burroughs under the terms of the will. Thus Lynch
Burroughs became owner of both the Wellbury and Offley
estates. On Lynch Salusbury's death in 1837, Offley
passed under an entail to the Marquis of Winchester and
Elizabeth Mary Burroughs had to raise a mortgage of
£77,000 to buy the estate. Lynch Burroughs second wife,
Anne Dickie, bought the Wellbury estate at this time.

Hester
Lynch Salusbury (Hester Thrale) by Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1781).

=

Elizabeth Williams
(daughter of Robert Williams of Ty Newydd, Denbigh)

*Is this the Ty
Newydd about 3 km N of
Denbigh on the road to Trefnant (A525)?

Anne Perceval (daughter and
heir of Thomas Perceval of Yvery, North Weston)

*See Burke's 'A Genealogical and
Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and
Ireland 1838 (Vol. IV, p.
609-614) for more
information on the Perceval family.

*Yvery is
the name of a family not a place. 'History of Powys
Fadog' (p. 338) says 'Thomas Salusbury, Colonel in the
Army, married Anne, only daughter and heir of Thomas
Percival of North Weston, Esq., head of the great house
of Yvery'. 'House', in this context, means 'family'.

*'North
Weston' refers to Weston-in-Gordano in Somerset which was
granted to Ascelin de Perceval ('The Wolf') following the
Norman Conquest and held by the family until Thomas
Perceval's death in 1691. My copy of 'The Domesday Book -
England's Heritage, Then & Now' (Bramley Books, 1997)
says 'Westona: Azelin and William from Bishop of
Coutances. 167 sheep. Church with 15th century tombs of
the Percevals, originally a Norman family.' Ascelin
was, apparently, given the nickname 'Lupus' or 'The Wolf'
on account of his ferocity. He was also the ancestor of
the Viscounts Lovel. Ascelin's son was given the nickname
'Lupellus' or 'Little Wolf', from which is derived
'Lupel', which apparently became 'Luvel' and then
'Lovel'. The family seat was at the courthouse on the
south side of the road about 100 yards east of the
church. There appears to be, or to have recently been, a
farmhouse on the site called Court Farm.

*She was
the last descendant and heir of the senior surviving
branch of the Percevals who came over with William the
Conqueror and who were, apparently, granted the barony of
Yvery (this is Beckley held by Roger d'Ivry, Domesday
tenant) in Oxfordshire, named after their castle of Yvery
in Normandy,that is Ivry la Bataille in Normandy. See
Complete Peerage, Vol. 8, p. 208.

The
chateau of Ivry la Bataille.

*A junior
branch of the family were later created Earls of Egmont (in Ireland) but I
have not yet investigated this link fully. A member of
this branch of the family, Richard Perceval (1550-1620)
deciphered the secret plans of the Spanish Armada and
thus 'laid before her [Elizabeth I] the first certain
intellience of Philip's plans for his Armada and the
invasion of the Queen's realm'.

*'From the
Normandy branch of the family are descended by heirs
general the dukes of Orleans, Retz, Antin, Gesvres, and
Montmorency Luxembourg, the marquises of Alegre,
Estampes, Barbesieux and Maillebois and the count de
Boulainvilliers of the kingdom of France, the margraves
of Baden and Hesse Darmstadt, and the princes of Nassau,
Ziegen, Hohenzollern and Lobkowitz in the empire of
Germany, the dukes of Havre, Arschot and Aremberg and the
prince of Chimai of the kingdom of Spain, the Dukes of
Guastalla and Bifaccia, and the house of Pignatelli in
Italy and the princes of Gavre and counts of Egmont in
the province of Flanders.' (Collins Peerage of England,
1812, Vol. VII, p. 333). This branch died out in the male
line in 1421.

*The
Percevals were descended from the Kings of France and
Charlemagne through the marriage of William, son of
Ascelin, to Auberie de Beaumont, daughter of Robert de
Beaumont, Count of Meulan (Vexin) and Earl of Leicester,
great-granddaughter of Henry I, King of France
(1006-1060). Anne was also descended from Robert Fitzroy
of Caen, Earl of Gloucester, (1090/95-1147), natural son
of Henry I, King of England, and also from Isaac
I Comnenus (d. 1059), Byzantine Emperor,
ancestor of the Palaeologi, the last Byzantine imperial
dynasty which became extinct with the fall of
Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. This descent is via
Sancha de Ayala (1360-1418), who came to England in 1369
in the suite of Constance of Castile (wife of John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster) and who married Sir Walter
Blount, grandfather to Anne Perceval's ancestor, Walter Blount
(1420-1474), 1st Lord Mountjoy. The 4th Lord
Mountjoy was Anne's great-great-great-grandfather.

*Her
ancestor, Maurice de Berkeley (d. 1326), 2nd Lord
Berkeley, was appointed Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed in
1314. He was also present at the famous seige of Caerlaverock castle in July 1300. He
was a great-great-grandson of Richard FitzJohn (d.
1242/1253), Baron of Chilham, Kent, natural son of King
John, probably by a sister of William de Warenne, Earl of
Surrey.

*Many
members of this family are buried in the church of St.
Peter and St. Paul near Weston-in-Gordano.

West window in the church
of St. Peter and St. Paul showing members of the Perceval
family. The left-hand pane depicts Sir Richard de
Perceval(d.1202) who
was knighted by Richard the Lionheart in 1191 after
leading the attack on Acre during the Third Crusade
(1189-92). During the attack he was hit by a stone from a
catapult and lost a leg. He is shown in the family crest
as a 'knight on horseback armed cap-a-pie with one leg
couped.' His tomb is just outside the south door of the
church and is believed to be the oldest table tomb in an
English churchyard ('Churchyard Chest Tombs', Jonathan
Taylor, published in Historic Churches, 2003). The middle
pane depicts Ascelin de Perceval, Earl of Yvery (the arms
above the figure are those of Yvery, now Ivry la
Bataille, in Normandy), builder of the church. The
right-hand pane depicts Sir James Perceval who re-built
the church.

The arms of Perceval
quartered with Yvery. Note that Burke's 'A Genealogical
and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain
and Ireland 1838 (Vol. IV, p.
614) states that
'The several branches of this family have the unusual
privilege of bearing supporters to their arms, as is
evident from the ensuing authority copied from the
original entry from the Office of Arms, London.
"This is to certify [to] all it may concern that it
appears from the ancient paintings and glass windows in
the house of Weston in the county of Somerset, that the
family of Perceval, of which the Earl of Egmont is chief,
have borne and used supporters to their arms, two eagles
sable, as depicted and blazoned in the book marked 3d. D.
14 p. 182 and 186, (in the Office of Arms, London) from
the time of King Edward I. Witness our hands as waiters
of the month, this 16th day of April, in the 13th year of
the reign of George II, King of Great Britain, France and
Ireland, Annoque Dom. 1740. Signed Charles Green,
Lancaster. Richard Mawson, Portcullis."' The Barony
of Perceval supposed to have been created by a writ of
summons issued to Roger Perceval in 24 Edw. I. (see p. 614, here
and here)
appears actually to have been a writ of summons to military service against the Scots and not a
summons to Parliament (though, interestingly, the writ is
addressed to 'Dominus Roger de Percevall'*).

*Note that in the same
summons of 24 Edw. I (1296), Thomas de Berkeley, who was
undoubtedly feudal baron of Berkeley and who had been
summoned to parliament in the preceding year (1295 - CP.
Vol. II, p. 127), was summoned as 'Dominus Thomas de
Berkele'. This implies that the title 'Dominus' was used
in respect of barons and that Roger de Perceval was
therefore a baron, since he was summoned as 'Dominus
Roger de Percevall'. There must have been some
distinction betwen those summoned as 'Dominus' and those
summoned by name only and the inference must be that
those summoned by name only must have been at least
knights (since the summons was a military one) and that
therefore that those summoned as 'Dominus' must have been
something other than knights, that is barons. What else
could they have been? Further, it is clearly a nonsense
that one person (Thomas de Berkeley) should be regarded
as a peer by virtue of the fact that he was summoned to
parliament in 1295 but that another person, who was
evidently of the same feudal status (as an immediate
vassal of the king) at that time (Roger de Perceval),
should not be so regarded. This illogical result is the
product of the modern doctrine of baronies by writ (which
is now acknowledged to be erroneous) invented by Coke
(CP, Vol. I, p. 34, n. b), which holds that peerages by
writ were created only by a summons to a parliament
(followed by a sitting).

*Son of John
Salusbury of Bachecraig (d. 1685) and Elizabeth
Ravenscroft, daughter of Thomas Ravenscroft (d. 1630) of
Bretton, nr. Chester, and Catherine Grosvenor, daughter
of Richard Grosvenor of
Eaton (d. 1542), ancestor of the Dukes of Westminster,
and Catherine Cotton. See Burke's Peerage under
'Westminster, Duke of' and 'The Family of Ravenscroft', by W.
Ravenscroft and Rev. R. Bathurst Ravenscroft (pub. 1915,
London). The family of
Egerton of Tatton Park (Earls of Bridgewater) also
descended from the Ravenscrofts of Bretton.

*Great
grandson of Sir John Salusbury of Lleweni, Knight of the
Carpet, (d. 1578) who married Jane Myddelton (d. 1588)
daughter of David Myddelton, Mayor of Chester (d. 1548)
of the Myddeltons of Chirk Castle. David Myddelton
was the son of another David Myddelton by his wife Ellen,
daughter of Sir John Donne of Utkington. Ellen's parents
preferred another suitor, a relation called Richard Donne
of Croton. David Myddelton shot Richard Donne as he and
Ellen were coming out of church after their wedding,
carried off the bride and married her the same day. Thus
Ellen was 'maid, widow and wife twice in the same day'.

*Sir John
Salusbury was known as 'Sir John of the Thumbs', because
he had two thumbs on each hand, and he is reputed to have
slain a dragon which was terrorizing the town of Denbigh.

The tomb of Sir John
Salusbury of Lleweni (d. 1578), 'Sir John of the Thumbs',
and his wife, Jane Myddelton.

*I have
been unable, so far, to obtain any further information on
the Order of the Carpet. The order definitely existed and
Sir John was appointed to it in the first year of the
reign of Edward VI. This is all I know at the moment.

*The line of descent on the original
document, the 'Descent of Hughes', goes to:-

John Salusbury's father, John
Salusbury (d. 1685), MP for Flintshire,
who marrried Elizabeth Ravenscroft (daughter of
Thomas Ravenscroft of Bretton).

John Salusbury (d. 1685) was the son
of Roger Salusbury (d. 1623),
who married Anne Clough,
daughter of Sir Richard Clough (1530-1570),
Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, and Catherine
of Berain (Sir Richard was her second
husband).

Roger Salusbury was
the son of Sir John Salusbury of Lleweni, Knight
of the Carpet, (d. 1578) who married Jane
Myddelton (d. 1588) daughter of David Myddelton,
Mayor of Chester (d. 1548).

Jane Velville was
the daughter of Sir Roland de Velville
(1474-1535), reputed natural son of Henry
VII, by his wife Agnes Griffith (d.
1543), half-sister or possibly daughter of Sir
William Griffith of Penrhyn (d. 1505) - see
below.

Catherine of Berain
had four husbands (in order) - John
Salusbury (brother of Roger), Sir
Richard Clough, Morris Wynn of
Gwydir and Edward Thelwall of
Plas-y-Ward. Thus, Anne Clough, the
daughter of Katherine of Berain's second
marriage, married Roger Salusbury, who was the
brother to John Salusbury, Katherine of Berain's
first husband! It looks complicated because the
Hughes are descended from Katherine of Berain's
first two marriages and from her third husband by
his first marriage. Norfolk Salusbury also came
by Plas-y-Ward, the home of Katherine's fourth
husband, so they may also be descended from him
as well.

Sir Richard Clough (d.1570), see above,
acted as the agent in Antwerp of Sir Thomas Gresham from
1552. The Dictionary of Welsh biography states, under
'Clough, Richard', that 'in December 1561 Clough,
writing to Gresham, suggested the erection of an exchange
for merchants in London after the model of the Burse in
Antwerp...' This was the origin the Royal Exchange,
the building of which started in 1566.

=

Margaret Norris (daughter
of William Norris)

*Her name is shown
on the original document as 'Elizabeth, daughter of James
Norris, son and heir of Sir William Norris of Speke and
Margaret Salusbury' but this is incorrect. See Dugdale's
Visitation of Lancashire (1664) - which is a contemporary
document with an entry prepared, I think, from
information provided by Margaret's elder brother, Thomas
- the Calendars of Salusbury Correspondence (University
of Wales Press 1954) and 'Denbighshire Pedigrees' by
Lewis Dwnn.

*James
Norris was the sixth son of William Norris and Margaret
Salusbury but he died unmarried before 1664, the date of
the visitation. In addition, William Norris (d. 1651) was
not a knight. The only Elizabeth Norris of this period,
that I am aware of, was William Norris's (d. 1651)
younger sister, who married Geoffrey Warburton of Arley,
Cheshire.

*In any
event, all the sources that I have seen state that the
lady who married John Salusbury of Bachegraig was either
the daughter or grand-daughter (see above) of Margaret
Salusbury, which is the important point.